What's under the hood?

I am hooked on technology.

Particularly phones.

The choice in the marketplaces both physical and online is ever growing.

Right now we have quad core monster phones that bring the Internet world and the business communication world, as well as gaming and all the rest of it, to the screen at breathtaking speeds.

Once you get one phone though, another bigger, brighter, clearer, better one is released.

You just can't keep pace with advancement in technology these days.

But the thing is.

At the end of the day?

They all do the same things virtually.

Calls, texts, emails, browsing, apps and the list goes on.

Sitting in Starbucks with my own phone this morning, my mind went back to the days when we didn't even have a home phone. If anyone in our family wanted to make a call we had to trudge, rain or shine, to the phone box which was about quarter of a mile away from our house.

How the world has moved on in such a short time.

One of the choices we are faced with when deliberating over the choice of a new mobile phone is 1. the outer appearance and 2. what is under the hood.

Some phones look so futuristic while others are robust and functional. But the fact remains you can have the most eye pleasing outer appearance but with less than pleasing workings under the hood, yet the same can be said the other way, with clumpy functional phones that aren't so pleasing house super fast technology on the inside.

My phone looks pretty cool but has good, but not top of the range, functionality. But it gets the job done.

What is under the hood matters much more than the outer appearance because its the inside that gets the job done.

I think of the world flashing around me every minute every day. Advertisements, books, TV, magazines and the like aimed at the importance of the outer appearance of both humans and material things. It's almost like as long as we take responsibility for the outside of us we are truly part of society, no matter what's going on on the inside of us!

As I'm writing this I've got this weird picture of Mother Theresa coming into my mind? I've been reading some amazing books and articles about the ministry of Mother Theresa lately, and I have to say when you look at the pictures of Mother Theresa, God love her, I'm not sure at first glance she would have caught my eye at a party (when I was young and virile of course!) According to me, she ain't all that high in the good looks department!

But boy what she had under the hood!

She had a massive heart, a dogged faith, a strong mentality towards mission, she had an inner beauty that was magnetic and full of charm. She had strength courage beyond the natural.

She was beautiful! And in kingdom terms? She got the job done.

Wouldn't it be really refreshing to see adverts and the like, aimed at taking responsibility for the inside of us as opposed to the outside. Where we focus on what is under the hood in our lives.

God gives us a chance to take responsibility for everything inside our hearts and our lives. He knows what's under the hood. He should do, he made it. Whatever is going on right now on the inside of us God knows!

You have searched me O Lord and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down, you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, you Lord, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand on me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the Heavens you are there; if I make my bed in the depths you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me. If I say, "surely the darkness will hide me,and the night become light around me, even the darkness will not be dark to you. The night will shine like the day, and the darkness is light to you. For you created my inmost being ; You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. (Psalm 139: 1-14)

He knows what is under the hood alright!

For this psalmist, he was taking responsibility for the inside of him.

He could see inside his own life because he used spiritual eyes, he was in a deep relationship with God no matter what was going on on the outside.

Today guys you have a choice.

What the outer appearance looks like? 2. What's under the hood?

Holiness, is for me anyway, about taking responsibility for what is under the hood. To make sure we are continually moving on, making things better inside our lives and especially inside our hearts, improving things, not being afraid of the new in regards to making changes inside of ourselves. The bible calls it changing from glory to glory.

At the end of the day in Kingdom terms?

It means we will constantly get the job done.

Blessings on your life today.