NOT IRRETRIEVABLE

I don’t often do extremely embarrassing things, but I do occasionally miss the mark and feel dreadful about it.

I gave someone some advice today. They responded by saying very bluntly:

“I’m not doing that; that’s lying.”

I stopped talking. They were right! What I was suggesting was a deception and there was no getting around it! I could barely believe I’d said it, thought it, condoned it: the easy way out, the lazy route, the awful path of untruth. I was suddenly a liar actively promoting the use of deceiving nice people to resolve an awkward situation. And I felt terrible.

Someone once said that it isn’t the big things that trip is up; it’s the little ones. I think it’s because they’re harder to see, and there are a lot more of them. They’re like mosquitos while you’re on a safari.

I did a couple of things, once I’d reflected on my ham-fisted attempts to peddle out of it. The first thing I did (and I may have got these the wrong way round) was to apologise. I texted, saying I was ‘100% wrong and really sorry.’ I said thank you too. Then the second thing I did was take it back to God and apologise. I asked for help to see the little things, and deal with the mozzies before they bite me. 

There’s a third thing to do too though, and that’s to forget it once it’s dealt with. Sometimes this is the hardest part, because we’ve consciously let ourselves down and it’s likely that we, ourselves, are our own biggest critic. But when a thing is forgotten by all, and lying irretrievably at the bottom of the ocean, thrown to obscurity by the Maker of all things... then it’s really time to let it go.

Ha! ‘Lying irretrievably...’ - thankfully I am hugely redeemable even if my behaviour lets me down. Thank You for retrieving me.