So. You let someone down. You hurt someone. Or worse yet. You let yourself down. Can’t forget it? Can’t erase it from the chalkboard of your life?
Everybody has a story. Something they have encountered along life’s journey. An unexpected happening. A crash. Oh, there are a lot of good things, but there is this thing, this one thing. This moment in our life that became a rock added to the baggage we carry.
What to do? We can beat ourselves up day in and day out. We can live a self punished existence. We can withdraw. We can feel unworthy. We can be the perfect example of a pity party planner. We can stop caring. We can stop making a difference in the lives of those who love us. Shall we continue? We can replay that regret, that action or hear those words all over again…day after day after day. Before you know it, you will have accumulated years of beatings at your own hands. You will have given up moments of your precious life that can never come to you again, to regret. Once more, what to do?
It is time to call a meeting. A sit down board meeting with Jesus. Sound crazy? It’s not. How can I know that? We first met, Jesus and I, in the early fall of 1967. I guess you could say it was a quick, get to know you meeting. The problem was, I didn’t stay in daily contact with my new Friend. He was there everyday, waiting. I could see the evidence of His presence. The years that followed were the best of times and yes, some not so best. Been there? Our first serious sit down board meeting happened in 1996. I just started speaking my life and choices thus far, to the One who already knew all that I was and had done my whole life. He just needed to hear from me… that I knew. He wanted to hear from a repentent heart.
Did I hear Jesus speak back to me? No. I found Him and what His advice for me was…in the pages of His Word laying in my lap. Sickness had come to the one who brought me into the world. My Mom. I found I had no control. I had to hand it all over. My mistakes, my fears, my worries, my tears. Our second emergency meeting came in 2001. I had to let go of my Mom. I recently came to understand that would be the beginning of a season in the wilderness. A desert experience. A place where I had to let God take care of me and lead me instead of me trying to lead. He and God have brought me through some perilous storms. I know there will be more. But They are with me. They forgave me my misteps and quiet frankly, my sins of omission. Listening and playing to what the world offers instead of the One who created the world. God wants our love in the form of obedience to His word.
It is my hope and prayer “that thing” in your life. The one you have carried far too long. The one that has stolen your peace and joy. The one that keeps seeping up from the past. Yes, that one. Will be resolved today. Call a meeting with the Chairman of the Board. Sit down in a quiet place. No cell phone, no television and no distractions. Your Bible open. Just start talking to Jesus about the things that you have been carrying far too long. He will chat with His Father in heaven and your eyes will find all the answers on the pages of your open Bible. You see God cast your sins as far as the east is from the west the day you first believed. It isn’t God who can’t forgive….
Today, would be the perfect day to have a chat and then reach down in that baggage and pull that rock out. Throw it as far as you can…your Father in Heaven will take it from there.
Scripture For Today:
Psalm 55:22
22 Give your burdens to the Lord, and he will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall. (NLT)
Psalm 103:12
12 He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west. (NLT)
© 2015 Kathy Ledbetter all rights reserved