Has it ever happened to you?
You make a miscalculation and your mind grabs onto it.
Before long your error gets transformed into the challenge of the week, year . . . or lifetime.
Such as …
You push a new CD into your car’s player. It’s a gift from someone so you listen to see if you like it. You begin tapping your hands on the wheel and your children join you in singing the chorus of the first cut.
Life is grand.
You arrive at the library, unbuckle your children, and herd them in for story hour. You’re delighted to meet a friend who’s there for the first time. To get some extra adult conversation you suggest going to the park down the street.
After you’ve shared the various trials in your life, you decide it’s time to go.
You get everybody back in the car to head home and push the button to play the CD, hoping it will calm yourself as well as your passengers. But nothing happens. Not even after you push the play button four times and finally try the eject button.
Oh, no! How’m I gonna drive all the way to Mom’s at the end of the month in silence?
You repeat your efforts to play or eject the CD numerous times with the same result.
“No, Susie, I can’t try a different CD. There’s already one in the slot so a second one wouldn’t fit. We’ll ask Daddy to look at it.”
After dinner your faithful husband heads out to the driveway and does his best to figure out the problem. But he too is stymied. The CD buttons don’t work at all; no music and no eject.
“I think the radio ate your CD, Sweetie. I’m so sorry. Please call the dealer and take it in so you’ll have it for your trip.”
I love that man, but I can’t believe this. LORD, I don’t think I can take another thing going wrong, another burden, another errand, another bill, another . . .
You start trying to figure out a solution for any of the struggles you face. The broken CD player becomes problem #1. It plagues you morning ’til night.
***************
The mechanic pulls the radio out of the car and starts turning screws. He wonders out loud what kind of music you listen to and you tell him, “Praise music to worship while I drive. Here. Let me show you.”
You reach into the car and grab the paper CD sleeve and hand it to him. He scans the list of songs on the back. Your eyes betray you as he seems to pull out the CD.
How could that be? That was the CD the radio ate.
How could it be in his hand?
Then you remember the last thing you did before you got out of the car at the library three weeks ago. You ejected the CD and slipped it back into its case to keep it from warping in the hot summer sun.
You want to do is disappear. You decide the light-hearted approach will work best. You joke with the mechanic, pay the labor charge, and get yourself out of there as fast as possible. You come face to face with yourself on the ride home.
If it’s one of your good days, you turn your mind and heart heavenward and share your relief as fully with ADONAI as you did your exasperation. Humility bathes your prayers as you confess your wayward temper and repent of your willingness to exercise it.
You pause, realizing you completely disrupted your own life. The entire episode was nothing but the outworking of your own foolishness. You recognize that your own thoughts attacked you like a school of pirañas. You feel undone.
The Father speaks through His servant, Paul.
“At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. … But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.”
Titus 3:3a-5
The Truth slows your racing mind.
You remember your rescue is based not on any worthiness you possess but on the kindness, love, and mercy of God shown in His Son Jesus the Christ.
Relief. Sweet Relief.
You snuggle into Holy Spirit who whispers that considering how much you’ve got on your plate, forgetting what you did with a CD is less than a blip on your radar screen. You breathe in and out in peace. Hallelujah.
It may have been a different set of circumstances that caught you off guard. But the dynamic was the same. You lost yourself in the busy-ness of life and misinterpreted something, someone, a situation. Before you knew it, your view of the world was askew. My prayers for relief are with you.
May the LORD ADONAI deliver His goodness to you this very day. Amen
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