I did something the other day that I won't forget anytime soon. As I was trying to free some much needed space up on the hard-drive of our family computer, I trashed something that I wasn't supposed to. While I thought I had all of our pictures backed up on a secondary hard-drive, I soon found out that all the pictures from 2007 were missing. That means, (from the lips of my now irate wife) that all of our daughter Hope's pictures are gone! Vanished!
When I shared this latest revelation with my wife, I gave it to her in the "Good news/bad news" sort of way. I gave her the "bad news" first - all the pictures from 2007 have been lost. But wait, I told her, "The Good news is that there not entirely lost - their out there somewhere in the great trashcan known as cyberspace." In other words, I was trying to convince her that I could find them and that I would do so ASAP.
Then I put my foot in my mouth even further and asked her why she needed Hope's pictures that bad in the first place. I mean, she was standing right there holding Hope in her hands. We saw her everyday! This didn't help matters a whole lot as my wife gave me a rather cold and chilling stare.
I share this humbling experience with you to point out how one simple push of the button can create a huge mess. One simple look, one simple decision to do this or that, can lead to all sorts of messes in life that will never be forgotten and will require a great deal of time and attention to clean it up. As I mentioned to a friend who had asked me the one thing that I would like to have on my tombstone when I die, I told him that it would be "A Man Above Reproach." If I could leave any legacy for my family, my children, my grandchildren, etc... it would be that - to live a life of such integrity that I left nothing that would shame my family or myself. This, in my view, would be a successful life.
The end of the story is a good one but a costly one. We found the pictures but we had to spend $100 for some software to do so. It was costly, and it took a lot of time. Likewise, the decisions we make each and everyday can prove costly and can take nearly our entire lives to completely (if that's possible) retrieve what was lost. So, if you've lost something (i.e. the trust of your loved ones)repent for what you've done. Then, in Jesus' own words, "Go and sin no more."
