What kind of life do you lead... a "pencil" life or a "pen" life?
In my arrogance, I typically do crossword puzzles with an ink pen. Not because I'm really smart, but because I like to dare myself to be mistake-free. Inevitably, I always end up scratching out a letter or a word that I was just sure was correct that ends up being completely wrong. What I'm left with then is a grid with a bunch of swirled pen strokes and dark blotches all over the page. Really smart people use a pencil... you know... just in case. But even with a pencil, it never seems to erase everything. There always seems to be the faintest hint of what was on the page prior to putting an eraser to it. And then there are the little rolled up crumbs that come off the eraser that end up in your lap when you brush them off the page. Even with a pencil and eraser, there are subtle reminders that a mistake was made.
So I ask you again... which kind of life do you live? Do you feel like all that you've done in your life is permanent? Or does if feel like you can put an eraser to a few things and clean it up a little bit? Maybe you want a "pencil" life, but can't escape the guilty feelings that make you feel like your history has been written with a Sharpie. Maybe you do understand that mistakes can be erased, but you still see or feel all the little crumbs and faint lines that are nagging reminders of things you've done wrong.
I'd like to think of my life as more of an "Etch-a-Sketch" kind of life. You see, God writes most of His teachings in Sharpie. There's not much about God's Word that is conditional. I think that's by design, because human nature dictates that when there's wiggle room on an issue, we really wiggle. We tend to try to bend it to suit our immediate circumstances or absolve us of a particular transgression. But when it comes to God's record of what we've done wrong, we get to introduce the DEaS (that stands for Divine Etch-a-Sketch, in case you haven't been following along). You see, God doesn't scratch out our sins and failures with a pen, leaving all that ugly, blotchy mess as evidence of a transgression. And He doesn't simply put eraser to our lives and leave the ghost of an imprint and a crumby mess in our laps to deal with later. He puts both hands on us, shakes us up a little sometimes, flips us over sometimes, and offers us a clean slate. Mistakes are not just erased, but forgotten altogether. If we choose to hold on to our mistakes, it's not because He wants us to. He wants us to learn from them, lean on Him, and move on, making a better choice next time. He wants it to become our nature through practice to live the life He has planned for us... He doesn't want to hold up the paper and say "See? See all these mistakes you made?".
This type of life is not one that requires starting as a child. There are adult versions too. It's not a life that's reserved for people who were raised in a godly home by perfect parents. It's one of those things that is NOT conditional. It's for everyone, any time. It's never to late to drop the pen... never too late to start living a life that glorifies God and all He's done to erase our sins through Jesus Christ... never too late to see how full a clean slate can feel.
Peace,
Mike
