Kris Bridgman
As I was typing one morning, I looked up at the screen and realized by all the scrambled letters, my hands had not been in the right position. I hit the delete button and all the mess disappeared and I began again.
I pondered on this. Wouldn’t it be great if life had a delete button? I didn’t like what happened last year – delete. I didn’t like what she said – delete. My childhood years were the pits – delete. I don’t like what my children are doing – delete. I don’t like all the sadness in the world – delete. Upon further pondering, I came to the conclusion there is a reason God didn’t give us a delete button for our lives. What kind of relationship would we have with Him if we could always delete everything we didn’t like?
How would we know joy if there were no sorrow? How would we experience becoming strong if nothing made us weak? How would we understand forgiveness if there were never anything to forgive? How would we know victory if we never had anything to claim victory over? What would make us run to the Father and seek Him if there were nothing to run to Him for? How would we understand and appreciate the unconditional love from our Lord if we never experienced the other. Would we even acknowledge Him as Lord?
I think a relationship with the Father would be pretty emotionless, pretty lifeless, and very pitiful if we owned a delete button to hit whenever we wanted. Would there even be a relationship?
When I think of my love for the Lord, I think of how He has rescued me, saved me, given me courage and boldness, restored and healed, infused me with His peace and joy, given me reasons for real praise. This all came about because of experiencing those times I would like to have had deleted.
Our relationship with Him, if any, would be very bland indeed. If there were no struggles, no pain, why would we even run to Him? Why would we seek Him out? How would we grow?
No, I believe He knew what He was doing when He didn’t create a delete button for our lives. God had something much better in mind for us than a cold, hard button. He gave us a warm, loving Savior.
I have told you these things so you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)
P.S. I sent this to my mom and she added to the devotional. Here is what she said:
For those of you who look at a keyboard all day and sometimes just need a break, want a devotional but don’t have one there at your desk, just look down at your keyboard.
- See the Pause/Break button? When you know Satan is attacking you and you’re upset, just Pause and ask God to Break Satan’s scheme.
- See the Shift and Enter buttons? Sometimes we need to Shift our attitudes and Enter into God’s presence for renewal.
- See the Escape button? Because of what Jesus did on the cross, we have a way of Escaping the punishment we deserve.
- And see the Home and End buttons. When our life Ends, we’ll be going Home. Hallelujah!
Pause and Reflect:
God has appointed us to challenging situations. We should not imagine that every negative thing ought to be deleted from our lives. Yet there is a valid use of the delete button. God promises to take our sins away and blot them out.
Is there anything that you are holding onto in your life that needs to be “deleted?”
© Kris Bridgman. All rights reserved. Used with permission.