There’s an old saying that it takes a real Christian to leave his parrot with the town gossip. A test of real virtue is what we do when no one’s looking. And evidence of our true self is left behind in the places no one is expected to go.

I read that Tim Tebow decided to get rid of the 18-year-old car he drove in college, and realized that it might be enough of a collector’s item that it could raise some funds for his charitable foundation. They decided to have NASCAR legend Richard Petty restore the inoperable 1995 Thunderbird, which is newsworthy enough, but I thought this was interesting:

When the foundation and the Petty people picked up the car, it still had music CDs in it as well as the air freshener that people might recognize from an ESPN documentary just prior to the draft where Tebow is shown driving the car. The car had cobwebs in it and lots of notes—from phone numbers of scouts to notes likely just left on Tebow’s car while on the Florida campus.

“It was not your typical college football player’s car by no means,” Petty’s Garage CEO Jeff Whaley said. “We found a list (of numbers) of when he was being courted to go to school, but there were no beer can lids, no cigarette ashes.”

I’m sharing this with my family — not as a commentary on the evils of beer and cigarettes, but on the evidence we leave behind us. If somebody cleaned out your floorboards, your desk drawer, your briefcase, or your browser history, what kind of picture would the evidence suggest? Would it be consistent with the image you try to uphold for others to see? Would  it reflect the way you see yourself?

Would it be evidence of the kind of person you want to be … or just the kind of person you are?

Hal

Are you or a family member struggling with a common secret sin? You might want to download and listen to

Shining Armor: Your Son’s Battle for Purity – it’s not just sons who battle with it.