When I say I'm going to be somewhere or do something at such and such a time; I'm usually 10 to 15 minutes early. Drove people in California crazy when I lived there. Being "on time" meant anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes late. Not my style. So, when I am late (in my mind) writing the blog, doing my journal, taking on a chore or something similar, I become a bit upset at myself. When I become upset with myself I begin to get distracted and sometimes get to the point when I say, "the heck with it." and abandon whatever it was all together. Then I have a doubled up task later that I have to deal with or put off for another day. Once the snowball begins rolling, it doesn't stop until it reaches the bottom of the mountain (or hill if you live in North Dakota). Then what do we do? We make excuses if you are like me. "I was doing..." "It was too difficult in such a short time." "I didn't really want to do..." "She/he took me away so I couldn't..." You get the picture and my bet is you have all the excuses you need without my suggestions.
Whenever we say we are "sorry" there is an implied element that we did something wrong. Yet, many times we say "I'm sorry." in other contexts as well, Such as when we hear that someone has become ill, had an accident, lost a loved one, is getting a divorce, or other event. "I'm sorry." doesn't fix anything but it is similar to saying "Sorry I'm late." This doesn't accomplish anything either. It delays our taking responsibility. I once heard the story of an elderly couple. The wife had come to the pastor and complained that her husband hadn't told her that he loved her in years. As a result she was contemplating divorce. The pastor went to the husband and presented the dilemma. The husband said to the pastor: "I told her I loved her when I married her. If anything changes I'll let her know." Making apologies for things that don't need addressing is wasting good guilt trips. There are always things we can be sorry for. There will always be things happening in others lives that we feel sorry for them about.
Sometimes we can look through the Bible and see what we should be learning about subjects such as this. The Bible begins on the premises that "you never need to say you are sorry" because there was no wrong doing, no sin. What happened was that mankind sinned and the resulting injury to their relationship with God was damaged. God reached out to mankind with grace even though mankind made excuses for everything but their own responsibility. That occurred when they crucified Christ as well and continues to happen in our present day. We are a fallen people prone to offend and injure our relationship with God. Notice that I didn't say mankind. The injury that occurs is between man and God. When we look elsewhere and claim the injury is to our friend or enemy, we miss the point. IF we are living for Christ then everything in our lives falls under the umbrella of that relationship. So, when I say that I'm sorry that I'm late today in writing this blog; who I'm really saying that to is Christ. Yes, it applies to Christ in you as well. It's not about me or you. It's about Jesus and having our order of importance up front all the time.
Matthew 6:33 says "Be perfect as my Father in heaven is perfect." Okay, I just as well say I'm sorry even before I read that! What I believe is meant by the author is that we are to "be being made perfect" as only Christ can do. That means, in turn, that His work in me is far from done. It's my hope that reading this has been timely for you and that "at just the right time," God brought his word to you through me. Sorry, I'm on time!
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