A pool of thought is a dangerous thing.

Wind is rustling leaves and branches outside the window behind me. Crickets are chirping. The occasional frog chimes in. A nice, gentle breeze is tickling the back of my neck. Summer has arrived, and with it, I have found excuses to think philosophical thoughts.

I was helping my father prepare the pool to be opened. He asked me to sweep up the leaves and pine needles on the patio. Like the angelic son that I am, I swept them up. The situation seemed silly to me as I thought about it. Below me was a pool. Its water looked gross and grimy.

Leaves, dirt, bugs, and bacteria congregated and conversed with each other. I could almost hear them mocking me while I swept up the pine needles on the surface.

Isn't that the tendency of Christians? We'll have all this sin and gunk in our lives. And we feel guilty about it. So we start sweeping up our hearts' patios. We make it look better. We point all questioners of our goodness towards the surface we've taken care of. After all, we dress "right." we listen to the "right" music. We say "heck" instead of "hell." And slap bumper stickers with "christian" sayings on our cars, then drive WAY over the speed limit. We put $20 in the offering plate, then spend hundreds of dollars entertaining ourselves. We roll our eyes at those foolish sinners while we're doing the exact same things. Or maybe worse.

I admit it. I'm as wrong as everyone else. Why do we feel justified and righteous because we shun the books we're supposed to, scowl at the music we're supposed to, and then go watch a curse-filled, sex-satured movie. And its ok, because on Sunday no one will make you feel guilty about it. Because they watched it too. Because somehow that makes it all ok.

Maybe we should spend less time sweeping our patios, and more time scraping the gunk out of the pool of our hearts. No amount of patio-sweeping will clean the pool. But if the pool is spotless, the surface will take care of itself. Maybe thats where our focus should lie. Maybe if our hearts were passionate for God, our actions would take care of themselves.