Monday, July 19, 2010

You Don't Have to Live with Email Regret

Email regret occurs when you click "send" but wish you hadn't. In an angry impulse you fire off a hot email to your boss, colleague, friend, mother-in-law…well, you get the picture! And you can't un-send your message—it’s the 21st century version of “you can’t un-ring a bell.”

While it’s true there are no do-over’s in this life, it is not hopeless. Every one of your mistakes (sometimes referred to as sin) activates the ‘send’ button of God’s grace. “Where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more”
(Ro. 5:20)—as though an oceanic measure of God’s grace was being stored up so you will have “…grace to help in time of need.” (Heb. 4:16)

And how exactly does God’s grace effect your regretful un-do-over’s? Well, it doesn’t ‘un-ring the bell’ or ‘turn back the clock.’ But God’s grace effectively overwrites our mistakes: re-sending them to accomplish His purposes (Ro. 8:28). And this overwriting grace is so effective that you might think it was better that you made the mistake (even though it isn't!) There is no logical explanation for this phenomenon. It is simply grace. However, I must add one thing to the mix. The certainty of God’s grace is inexplicably connected to your responsible participation (sometimes referred to as repentance.)

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