If you were to meet yourself
on the street some morning by J.R. Miller Search me, O God,
and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive
way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way. Psalm 139, 23,
and 24. it will be worth our while to
think seriously of the things in us that only God can see. There are sins which are hidden
from ourselves, of which our conscious is not aware, our unknown
errors, the evil in us which lies too deep to be discovered. There is a self in us which even
we ourselves do not see. There are depths of our being
into which our own eyes cannot pierce. You may say that you
know of no sins, errors, or faults in yourself, and you may be sincere. Still, this is not evidence that
you are sinless. Our conscience is not the final
court. It is not enough to have the
approval of our own heart. There are errors and evils in
the holiest life on earth, which only God's eye can detect. We must ask God to search us
if we would be made clean. We cannot see our own faults,
even as our neighbors can see them. There is wisdom in our
wish that we might see ourselves as others see us, for it would
free us from many a blunder and foolish notion. We are prejudiced
in our own favor. We are disposed to be charitable
toward our own shortcomings. We make all sorts of allowances
for our own faults. We are wonderfully patient with
our own weaknesses. We are blind to our own blemishes. We look to our good qualities
through magnifying glasses and at our faults and errors with
the lenses reversed, making them appear very small. We see only
the best of ourselves. If you were to meet yourself
on the street some morning, that is, the person God sees you to
be, you would probably not recognize yourself. We remember the little
story that the prophet Nathan told King David about a rich
man's injustice toward a poor man, and how David's anger flamed
up. This man must die, cried the
king. He did not recognize himself
in the man he so despised, until Nathan quietly said, You are
the man. We are all too much like David. If the true chronicle of your
life were written in a book, in the form of a story, and you
were to read the chapters over, you probably would not identify
the story as your own. We do not know our real self.
We do not imagine there is so much about us that is morally
ugly and foul, that is positively wicked. But God searches and
knows the innermost and hidden things of our heart. Search me,
O God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive
way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.