This week, I shared my new devotional with some friends here in Birmingham. This little PDF is called Curating the Good: Collecting & Displaying Evidence of God’s Goodness. We are reading it together, daily—road-testing it, really. And Monday was the first day. I just loved how saving a Word document as a PDF immediately turned my words into an eBook! Here’s a sneak peek at the cover:
But.
On Monday, as I scanned the e-pages, imagining my ladies reading it, I noticed a few typos. Ugh. It happens. It happens to every writer, and I’m sure if you read here often enough, you’ve seen it happen here. But making mistakes is not what we set out to do.
I’ve had to learn, over many years of blogging, not to focus on the typos. If I focus on the typos, I lose my joy in writing. And over the years, I have found so much joy in learning about God’s goodness and sharing it with others, here. I love the creative process of blogging—thinking thoughts, expressing them in words, and making images to distill them. I’m blessed the Lord gave this odd hobby. He provides me with opportunity and He has given me a husband and kids who support this desire in me. I really do love blogging.
Yet, I am left with my typos everyday.
I might have a typo in this post. There are typos in my book Prodigal Confessions—I know this because I am re-editing it now and finding so many things to correct. I have typos in my text messages. There are typos in my spoken words. Typos in my deeds. In my spiritual walk, there are typos, too. We call this sin.
And when I keep my eyes on all my mistakes, I am filled with grief and distracted from the good stuff. [Pssst! God is in all of the good stuff].
I’m convinced we need to learn to embrace our wholeness, though we can’t seem to escape the brokenness. Sometimes all we feel is broken, but the truth is that we’ve been made whole in Jesus. This is what my friend Amy talks about a lot—the already and the not yet. Because of Christ, we “already” have a remedy for our brokenness—we are saved from sin and death—but we can “not yet” fully enjoy complete freedom, not yet, not while we struggle with sin here on earth.
Jesus is Our Remedy
Jesus died to save us, to give us His Spirit, to rescue us AND to give us a new life. Yet, corruption tries to cling to us, reminding us of all the ways we fall short. Sin and death want to steal our joy and prevent us from living by the Spirit. Our mistakes do not define us, God’s faithfulness does: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9, ESV).
He is faithful; we are loved.
As our group reads about curating the good (collecting and displaying the evidence of God’s goodness/His TÔWB), I am struck [again] by the reality that ALL things are working for my good, because I love God and I am called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). All things. Even the typos!
test everything; hold fast what is good
1 Thessalonians 5:21, ESV
I want to challenge you this week: don’t be distracted by the typos (yours or anyone else’s). Instead be on the lookout for what’s good. It might be hard to see because sometimes God’s goodness comes disguised as bad news, a difficult relationship, or a painful season. But let’s hold fast to the truth. God’s good can never be thwarted or undone by what appears to be bad.
In everything and in every way, God is always at work to draw us into deeper relationship with Him and to grow us to be more and more like Him. The Lord has big plans for us. He has good in store for us, today and tomorrow. We already have plenty of practice looking for typos, now we just need to practice looking for good and pointing it out to others.
Tell me what's on your heart: