Computer Life Lessons and Fatal Error.

My friend Kyle wrote a short 2 sentence post the other day asking the simple question, “where do you get your ideas?”

Something that never ceases to amaze me about life is how, when you are paying attention, it constantly teaches you about yourself, God, and truth, and the interworking relationships there in.

I have had more time on the computer in the last few days then I typically prefer. Which says a lot considering I’m on more than most of my flesh and blood stay-at-home-mom friends!

In learning how to use a control panal for a website, work with databases and figure out programs I have been reminded of some fundamental truths. I want to write about the most significant one.

As Christians we talk about “running the race”, pursuing that “hope for which we were called”. We remember that we are to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling”. We are reminded that we “fall short” and need a “savior” as a “sacrafice” for our sins.

Take the Christianese and you get, We can’t get to heaven because we’re good. Despite how “great” we may think we are, there will always be areas that need improvement. Even if our life doesn’t domemstrate obvious sins, if we are honest, we can examine our hearts motives at times, and our thought lives and realize that there is sin somewhere… whether it was an envious thought, false pride, lust, etc.

The idea of living the rest of our lives ‘perfect’ is rather over-whelming (unless we are in denial!). To be in the presence of GOD! Can you imagine? One who is perfect, holy, completely without sin! His light quickly would reveal any darkness in our souls. In knowing this we accept by faith the only sacrafice appropriate for these sins, death. Death through a perfect, spotless sacrafice, Jesus. And we live by faith with him. We worship him and trust him. We give up things the world tells us we “need” because God’s word tells us those things are not good for us. We strive to live our lives according to God’s word believing that the one who created life best knows how to live it. And what many don’t realize, is the joy and freedom it brings us. Knowing there is more. That there is hope. That life is getting better, not because circumstances around us, but because of the hope that continues to grow despite the hardest of circumstances. The hope that can not be swayed and can sometimes be hard to explain unless you have felt it.

That was a brief tangent I felt I needed to go on, because I realize that there are a lot of you who read that don’t speak “Christianize”, yet I fall into it often. Being raised in the evangelical church, this is my native tongue. Sometimes I need to step back and figure out how to re-phrase. Please email me or comment if you ever have no clue what I’m saying, but want to understand it.

Anyway, back to my past couple days on computers and what I have been reminded of.

I’m not perfect (duh). Far from it. And I have blindspots. We all do. Surprise! You have blindspots! Did you know that? Because of these blindsports we need some things. Like how on a car you need mirrors to help you see angles you would not otherwise see, we need community. We need friends and family that will be honest. That will tell us (in love) areas that are not so pretty or need a little grooming. Areas that hurt ourselves and others. And at worst, areas that could lead us (or others) to death.

Without these relationships, this community, we can sometimes fool ourselves that we have it all together. We can choose to ignore our internal sins and pretend our motives aren’t coming out in what we do. We can miss the fact that the lane we are merging into has a semi-truck in it.

That is one of the many reasons something like marriage is so amazing. Your spouse is well aware of your imperfections and (hopefully lovingly) help you work through them. And children! I know I have posted a couple times lately what little mirrors they can be here and here!

While I have been working on the computer, figuring out how to correctly install templates I have been plagued with error messeges. Some times I even had “fatal errors”. (WHAT? FATAL? What have I done?). I have thought, “YES I FINALLY GOT IT!”, only to pull of the page and have nothing appear. I have had to humble myself and go to friends and sometimes even strangers at forums and say, “HELP! What am I doing wrong? I entered that code, I swear I did it right, right?” Only for a mistake to be found and have to be fixed. Whether I misplaced a folder, didn’t have permissions set, or created a file incorrectly. There were times I misplaced code in the wrong part of a file, and times I had accidently deleted something I needed. Upon taking closer looks, over and over again, I found the mistakes I missed the first three times.

I’m not perfect. Sometimes I miss the obvious right in front of me. Sometimes someone around me will point out something I can’t believe I didn’t see earlier.

The great thing about discovering these mistakes, being humble and asking for help, is that you have an incredible opportunity to learn! Sometimes the lessons we learn when we are open to the fact we are imperfect are the ones that will teach us the most. They are the lessons that will stick with us. Even when those mistakes mean you are going to have to go back to the begninning and work really hard starting all over. Those can be life changing.

Through this process I have been on I’m thankful for those that helped me along the way, to see where I was going wrong, and where I could do better.

My gratitude can not run out for the people who out of love have helped me on this path, my journey. Those are friendships that can never be replaced.