I was driving talking to a friend of mine about a used car and a common question came up…How many miles does it have? What kind of condition is it in? Isn’t it interesting that most people judge used cars based on these factors? Have you ever noticed that people will ask about the mileage because it can give insight into the overall health of the vehicle? I began to think about how the world would be if people had odometers and gauges that showed their mileage.

What if every individual had a gauge for dieting habits, substance abuse, and sexual promiscuity? What if these gauges were visible to the general public? How would you feel about your life? Think about the implications if life were like this. What gauge would you be the most embarrassed for people to read? How much “mileage” would you have in the “lot” of life? How do you think people would judge you and ridicule you based on your mileage?

I also thought about how the mileage doesn’t effect the value of the car if you change what is on the inside. A used car becomes valuable when you keep the right fluids in it and change the necessary parts that are old and outdated. People aren’t any different. If you keep the right things on the inside and make changes to the “old” parts of your being that are hurting your overall character, your mileage would not matter–even if you were responsible for the excessive wear and tear! Aren’t you glad that we don’t have to display that type of information!

This is the beauty of God’s grace…no one knows the mileage that we have put on our lives because God covers it up. God will literally change the very essence of who you are on the inside if you will let Him and make a used body operate like a new person! God changes the motor and makes the number on the odometers insignificant! Imagine if people had to display our gauges…thank God, literally!