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IF ONLY LIFE CAME WITH AN ERASER I enjoy reading the comics from time to time. One of the ones that has always intrigued me is "Dennis the Menace." I don't know why that one intrigues me.... In this particular cartoon, Dennis is sitting in his rocking chair holding his teddy. He's looking at the wall, admiring the art work that he has just created. There are spent Crayolas all around his chair, and he's looking at the house and the dinosaur and the sky with the sun, and the flowers, all over this newly painted wall. His mother didn't appreciate that at all. That's probably why he's sitting in his rocking chair facing the wall, holding his teddy. Hank Ketcham lets us hear Dennis' thoughts: "Why doesn't life come with an eraser?" How many times have we wished that life came with an eraser? "Oh, if I could just wind the clock back to just before I made that terrible faux pas." "Why did I ever do that?" "What possessed me to say that?" If only life came with an eraser. That's probably why this passage from the fifth chaper of Second Corinthians is so powerful and so popular. For those of you that don't know the origin of this, let me put it in its setting for you. David has just committed adultery with Bathsheba. Nathan has been there and confronted him, and David cries out to God, "Have mercy on me! Wash me thoroughly from my transgressions. Cleanse me from my sins. Blot out my iniquity." David wants to start over. David wants to wind that clock backward and say, "God, let's play this scene again. Take this sin away from me." Now put that together with some of the more popular books that we can find today. If you go into any bookstore today, there's a large section entitled "Self Help." They discovered about 15 years ago that they can sell these self-help books by insulting us. 400 million copies of the Idiot series and the Dummy series have been sold -- like DOS for Dummies, Pit Bulls for Dummies, or Golf Rules and Etiquette for Dummies. Or you can buy the orange books in the Idiot series, and you can learn Spanish or Philosophy. There's even The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Art of Seduction. Will Willimon, of Duke University, tells about the time he read his first self help book. He says that in the introduction the author says, "Congratulations. Having purchased this book, we know that you want to change." In the first chapter it says, "Get up fifteen minutes earlier every morning, sit in your rocking chair, and think positive thoughts." Will says, I hate to get up in the morning, and I don't own a rocking chair, but I was committed to this program so I decided I'd continue reading the book." Chapter 2: Make a list of all the good things that you're going to do today and put that list in your shirt pocket. Chapter 3: Write a thank you letter today and every day to someone who has touched your life. Chapter 4: Volunteer two hours weekly, and make sure that you're always reading a positive book. Chapter 5: Have three conversations each day with positive people. Will says, "By the time I finished reading that book, I was so depressed I decided to just stay the way I was." There is an inherent desire for us to want to change, to be better. That's why the self help books are so popular. We want to improve our lot. But when you talk with psychiatrists and psychologists, they'll tell you a different story. One psychologist, when being interviewed after being 30 years in the field, said, "I've learned that, for the most part, people never ever change." That's pretty depressing. I suspect that's because we think we can do it ourselves. We can buy a self help book. We can do the work that's necessary, and we can pull ourselves up by our psychological boot straps and be different. But we can't. Our sin is always around us. Our sin is ever with us. We don't want to own our sin. And whatever we don't own, owns us. Remember Flip Wilson? "The devil made me buy that dress! It wasn't my fault! I didn't do it! The devil made me do it!" "I did badly on that test in school today, Teacher, and I'm sorry, but that really wasn't me." Well, who was it that sat in that chair and took the test? "I wasn't myself." You see, if you don't own it, it owns you. And when we don't acknowledge the sin that we have, when we try to lay it off on something else, when we try to dismiss it or excuse it or set it aside, then it owns us, and there's no ridding ourselves of it. So here's David, in the 51st Psalm. He says, "I know my transgression, and my sin is ever before me. Against you and you alone have I sinned." If only life came with an eraser. If only we could walk backwards in time. If only we could make that time piece go counter clockwise and start it again. There's a poster that says, "Watch your thoughts, they become words. Watch your words, they become actions. Watch your actions, they become habits. Watch your habits, they become character. Watch your character, it becomes your destiny." It's easy to dismiss and not take responsibility for our thoughts. It's tougher to erase our words, and tougher still to erase our actions. When it comes to your destiny, it's impossible to erase it. Remember Nicodemus? He wrote that book, Rebirth for Dummies. Here he is, standing before Jesus, saying, "Born again? You mean I have to go back into my mother's womb?" Jesus says, "No, Nicodemus." He goes on and tells him how that kind of rebirth takes place. Friends, the Good News is, life does come with an eraser. That eraser is in Jesus Christ. As Paul puts it in the fifth chapter, "So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation. Everything old has passed away." Life does come with an eraser. But like with all good news, there is a price to pay. For this Good News, Jesus paid the price on the cross. Your cost, your part of the bargain, is to own your sin. "Against you, O Lord, have I sinned, and against you only. Blot out my transgression. Wash me thoroughly. Cleanse me from all iniquity. Then you read what happened to David. He went on to bigger and better things after this. David owned his sin. David admitted his iniquity, and through the power of Almighty God, he was transformed. That's the Good News. The eraser is there for you. Amen. ©2002 John Blackadar |