Lately some words from an article I once wrote have been running through my mind: We serve a God who is a master of fixing.
I wrote the article for the CLP Sunday school papers at the ripe wise age of 23 and am a little embarrassed to read it now. It seems so very idealistic and MOMENTOUS, you know? “I see people hurt by the mistakes of their parents and passing the same hurts along to their children. I see people ignorant, selfish, and blind…” as if I at 23 had observed and understood the sins of the world.
Still, I like the underlying concept of this article. My heart still feels half doubtful, half amazed when I think about a God who fixes things and makes them better than they were. And since we have been traveling this past week, and I didn’t have time to write fresh, I will share this writing from the past with you. Funny thing is…you know those words that have been running through my mind? We serve a God who is a master of fixing...I can’t find them in the article at all.
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I hate making mistakes. Unfortunately, I make them all the time. Like the time I sewed the sleeve of the dress I was making to the neck opening. Frustrating. The time I sang a wrong note in church. Embarrassing. The time I drove the wrong way down a one-way street. Dangerous. The time I got angry and told off my sister. Hurtful.
I wish I never made mistakes. Some mistakes are merely embarrassing or inconvenient and easy to laugh at later. But some mistakes hurt others and myself. Some mistakes are sin.
We live in a messed-up world. All around me, I see people living lives that are twisted and unhappy. Divorces, unkind words, abortions, lies. I see people hurt by the mistakes of their parents and passing the same hurts along to their children. I see people ignorant, selfish, and blind to the results their choices will bring. I see people who look back and wish they could do it again.
Yet Romans 8:28 tells us, “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” All things? Surely not.
Surely not all things, Father. Do you know what you’re talking about? Can’t you see what’s happening in this world? How can you work good from my mistakes?
Yet I choose to believe You, Father. You took Adam and Eve’s sinful, epoch-changing mistake and crafted for Your own honor the beautiful plan of salvation. I believe You can also take my mistakes, my wrong choices, my sins and transform them for my good and Your glory.
During the Great Depression, Ruth Wakefield ran a roadside inn beside a busy toll road in Massachusetts. Ruth served meals to her guests and became known for her desserts. One day, she was mixing a batch of chocolate butter drop cookies and realized she was out of cocoa. She cut a chocolate bar into small pieces and mixed the pieces into her dough, hoping the chocolate would melt and blend with the batter to create chocolate cookies.
When she took the cookies from the oven, Ruth thought at first they were a flop. Her guests thought differently. Today, seven billion chocolate chip cookies are eaten worldwide every year, and half the cookies baked in American homes are chocolate chip.
Can God take my flops and transform them into something good? I believe He can if I allow Him to.
How can I deal with my mistakes in a way that allows God to bring good from them?
1. I will be honest. I will admit my wrong. I will not try to cover it up or blame others. I will say I am sorry.
2. I will try to learn from my mistakes. The greatest lesson I can learn from any mistake is humility. I am not perfect. I want to acknowledge that and learn to depend on God. I want to learn to ask others for help. I am proud and independent; I hate to admit my weaknesses. God can use my mistakes to teach me to be open, to teach me to be humble, to teach me not to be critical of others.
3. I will choose to praise God. I will praise God in spite of my failure, because of His power. I will praise Him for His grace and compassion. I will choose to praise Him always in all things because He is holy, and praise is my sacrifice to Him.
4. I will rest in God. I am weak, but He is strong. I am poor, but He is mighty. I may not be able to fix my mistakes, but I serve a God who can. I serve a God who is all-powerful; who breathes life into dead things; who uses the poor, the weak, the despised in the world rather than things that are mighty. He said, “My strength is made perfect in weakness.”
I have come to the conclusion that God doesn’t see mistakes the way we see them. To Him, failure is an opportunity to show His strength. Mistakes are tools He uses to bring us closer to Him and to transform a sinful nature to a Christ-like one.
Through our mistakes, God stretches us, teaches us, changes our hearts. When we allow Him to, God transforms our mistakes into holy things.
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If you take a test, do you learn what you don’t know if you answer all the test questions correctly? No. In that scenario, you didn’t learn about the limits of your information at all. The test was a complete waste of the test-taker’s time. You only learn when you incorrectly answer a question.
Mistakes are fundamental to our humanity. Without them, we would understand ourselves to be God, for we would be without sin or mistake.
So don’t hate your mistakes. They are the only way that we learn. They are the only way we are humbled from our natural hubris of comparing ourselves to God.
We should always forgive the sinner but never forget the sin. For the act of sinning did harm to another and needs to be atoned for, but the sin also potentially was a blessing to the sinner, for it teaches them both that they are human and what not to do next time.
God works in mysterious ways.
Happy Easter, Lucinda!
Happy Easter to you! And thank you for these wise words. I never thought of mistakes in quite that way, but you speak life giving truth.
Thanks for the inspiration, Lucinda! It really blessed my day!! Keep writing!!
Good thoughts here! I HATE mistakes. Recently I had a day where it felt little went right. A registration glitch (something for college), I sewed the cape onto the dress the wrong way (I never do that!!), and I lost my keys at Walmart during a quick trip. (Found them again, but not before crying my eyes out and contacting my bro-in-law to see what my options are. (My spare set was in my locked car).
I think I need a fundamentally different view of mistakes. It’s hard to be a perfectionist. I want to get it right every day all the time. Not possible. Not even what Jesus asks of me. Thanks for writing!
Totally relate with wanting to get everything exactly perfect.
I love the chocolate chip story-hence Toll House chocolate chip cookies! That lady probably had no idea she was creating a new recipe that would long out live her. My husband thinks chocolate chip cookies are the only cookie worth making or eating!
Ivan is kinda like that too!