I slammed the phone down on the table and walked away, frustration seething inside me. A broken piece of office equipment, dead before its time! Minutes later, however, I was more disappointed in myself than the unresponsive printer. I had allowed myself to be drawn into a vortex of negative thoughts – again. But then I realized something that is true, not just for me. We are free to leave it all behind.
Free to Start Again
Free to begin again, to have a fresh start.
Do you ever feel like I did? You find yourself in a messy situation that you do not like. Because you have reacted according to an old script?
Therefore, I don’t have to be content with being stuck in the consequences of bad decisions.
I can leave it all behind, one decision at a time.
Free to Leave it All Behind, Right Now, as a New Creation
This is what I mean:
”Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV)
Being in Christ, believing that I am saved from my sins, by His grace, means I am a new creation, right away.
The old me is replaced.
Photo: Danielle MacInnes on Unsplash
But, every day I have the freedom to choose (many times) how I react to a situation. I must determine how I will make my decisions.
Will I react like the old me, as I did with the printer?
Or will I choose to respond like the new creation I am?
Free to Choose my Alignment
As one of my mentors, Beryl Moore, says in her Facebook post of September 17th,2020, regarding each choice, “It doesn’t affect your salvation, you can’t lose that, it does affect your growth.”
Growth in my faith is definitely what I want.
My reactions and decisions are based on alignment, I believe. I can choose to align myself with who God says I am now, or who I used to be.
This reminds me of a problem we are having with our garage door. One of the safety sensors gets knocked out of alignment very easily. Which results in the garage door not closing with the remote.
You may think this is a small inconvenience. I suppose it is. (I should add that I am very grateful to have a garage.)
When it doesn’t close, I have to park in the driveway, run into the garage and, close the door manually. Then out the side door and back to the car.
If I just fix the sensor, I avoid all this trouble.
It’s not difficult. I take a tiny level and adjust the mechanism until it’s parallel to the floor, and aligned with its counterpart.
As a result, the garage door closes easily and I am on my way. It never takes as long as I imagine it will in my hurry. A few minutes spent and my day is calmer, more peaceful.
Just like fixing the sensors, it doesn’t take long to align myself with God. Often though I just react quickly or make a decision in a rush.
But when I align myself with God, I make my choices as a new creation. I can step into his plan. I am at peace.
How to Realign in Real Life
(Photo: Priscilla du Preez on Unsplash)
But what does this look like in real life?
Well, here is what happened with my broken printer.
I decided to move forward as a new creation. When the first solution suggested by the manufacturer did not work, I decided to wait.
Realistically, I didn’t believe I could stay calm and polite during another hour-long telephone call.
So, I waited for a day. I remembered that, as a new creation, God will provide patience and clarity of thinking. Both were promises I needed. So, I aligned myself with them.
And I was able to stay calm, and empathetic, as the new tech support person tried to piece together the results of the diagnostic testing in the last call. (For over an hour 🙂 )
I’m glad I acted to leave it all behind. I chose to let go of my frustrations, impatience, and my assumptions that there was no fair solution to my problem.
I felt good about my responses.
There was even a bonus. At the end of the call, I learned a new printer was on its way to me
I know I will have many more opportunities to choose how to react. I’m going to move forward one decision at a time.
How about you? What would you like to leave behind right now? Freeing you to step into decisions based on you as a new creation.