As a person who began his communication life with a Laddie pencil and a Big Chief tablet, I have come to love the technology of this present day. Yes, I get frustrated with my lack of understanding and skill in the use of technology, but isn’t technology amazing!
One of my favorite parts of the computer and its smaller cousins, like the iPad and smartphone, is the rather simple luxury of the delete key. In days past when you made a mistake or wanted to change something, you had to use an eraser that left the page full of smudges and unsightly erasures. Anybody remember “white-out”? For the uneducated, it was a white goop that you could cover your mistakes with when typing on a typewriter (okay, some of you don’t even know what that is). White-out was problematic because its color was whiter than the paper, and your document would have white splotches everywhere on the page.
Sometimes you just had to start over. When I turned in my doctoral paper, there could not be any splotches! If you got to the bottom of the page and made a mistake, you had to redo the whole page. Now do you understand why I love the delete key? It is a technological miracle. If you make a mistake or you don’t like what you have written, just hit the delete key and poof, it’s gone—mistake corrected or clean screen before you. Awesome!
As we begin the New Year, it would do us all good to employ the use of a spiritual delete key. Some of us have allowed our lives to be pulled down by past mistakes, sin, disappointment and hurts. Instead of hitting the delete key, we have nurtured them, leaving our soul full of splotches and our minds smeared with the residue of “stinkin’ thinkin’.” We hurt ourselves, and unfortunately, the splotches have a way of smearing everyone around us.
Wouldn’t you rather begin 2017 with a clean screen? Why not bring your mistakes, sin, disappointments, hurts and the residue they leave behind to your Lord and seek His cleansing? The apostle John gives a good promise when he says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Or consider the words of Isaiah when he wrote, “’Come, let us discuss this,’ says the Lord. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are as red as crimson, they will be like wool’” (Isaiah 1:18).
While I like the delete key, I have also discovered that hitting that key does not permanently delete my mistakes. People in the field of technology can find my deleted mistakes, but not so with the covering of the blood of Jesus. When the blood of Jesus cleanses us, we are clean. The stains of sin and sadness are gone—no splotches remain. The past cannot be dug up again or rediscovered. We are clean!
So I urge you to bring your brokenness before the Lord. Cast your hurt and that brokenness beneath the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb. Find release for yourself. Then release those you hold hostage through grudges and an unwillingness to forgive, and those with whom you are disappointed.
Now you have a clean screen and can begin to fill it with thanksgiving, praise, and Kingdom living that brings glory to the Master.
