I had a post planned for yesterday, a summary of our last adult education class on discipleship and leadership. But I was delayed by the untimely demise of the hard drive on my laptop. It was the victim of a frustrated 15-year-old who couldn’t get a program to work and thought the laptop was tougher than it was.
Two lessons came out of this experience that I want to share. (Don’t worry, for those of you interested in the discipleship class summary, that’s still coming).
First, I was reminded of how grateful I am for my wonderful husband who is thoughtful, intelligent, and quite handy with computers in spite of no formal training. As soon as we realized the poor computer hard drive had bitten the dust, he went to work trying to fix my computer. He attempted to restore the hard drive with the data backed up on an external back-up drive we have. When that didn’t work, he got up first thing yesterday morning, removed the hard drive from the laptop, and headed out to our local computer store to purchase a new one. He found me a 500 gigabyte hard drive (almost twice the size I had) for a great price. He installed the hard drive in the laptop and restored all of my programs and data to the point they were at the last time it was backed up. I was able to check my email last night, but didn’t have time to post anything.
I seem to have forgotten lately how special my husband is. I’ve allowed myself to be irritated by little things that are of no consequence. I was reminded by this occurrence that what is important to me is important to him. I was reminded of how much he loves me.
The second lesson that came out of this experience was a bit more involved. As I mentioned, the demise of my hard drive was caused by my frustrated 15-year-old. He is a perfect example of that old adage “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” He sometimes exhibits the same frustration and short fuse I have since I was a child, and still do sometimes even now. I was reminded by this that I need to help him learn how to deal with his frustration in a more constructive manner. I know what has helped me to overcome my tendency to become easily frustrated, but I don’t think I have done a very good job of conveying what I have learned about this over the years to him.
Then this morning I was listening to my Christian playlist on my iPod. Just last week I added a CD by a band called Skillet, which my son listens to and recommended to me. They are a Christian band, but I haven’t had a chance to listen to the whole CD yet. So this morning, while I was getting dressed, their song “Monster” started playing. This is one of their songs that I have heard before, but I hadn’t paid attention to the words or thought about what made it a Christian song. At first listen, one would probably not think it is a Christian song. These are just some of the lyrics:
I feel it deep within, it’s just beneath the skin
I must confess that I feel like a monster
I hate what I’ve become, the nightmare’s just begun
I must confess that I feel like a monster
My secret side I keep hid under lock and key
I keep it caged but I can’t control it
‘Cause if I let him out he’ll tear me up, break me down
Why won’t somebody come and save me from this, make it end?
As I listened to it this morning, I was pondering what this song could mean from a Christian perspective. I realized that the “monster” is our sinful nature. The first step to realizing we need Christ is to realize that we all have a monster living “just beneath the skin.” This monster would like to tear us up and break us down. We all need someone to come save us! Just then the song ended and the very next song to play was “Consuming Fire” by Third Day:
Set this place on fire
Send your Spirit, Savior
Rescue from the mire
Show Your servant favor
Yesterday was the day that I was alone
Now I’m in the presence of Almighty God
I always have my iPod on shuffle, so I never know what will be next. I am convinced that God often takes control of what song will be next to help me learn something from the lyrics. In this case, the message I heard was that the answer to our struggle with the monster within, our struggle with our sinful nature (which can come out as frustration and a short fuse), is to call on God to send His Holy Spirit to rescue us from the mire and help us to overcome the monster.
Have I taught my son this truth as I should? He believes in Jesus, but I’m not sure I’ve helped him to understand the power of the Holy Spirit in his life. This is an important truth that must be passed on to the next generation. Have you passed this on to your children? I pray that you and I will ensure our children will spend now and forever in the presence of Almighty God, so that they will never be alone and never have to try to save themselves.
I was 24 hours without my laptop! It seemed like forever, and yet the blessings and wisdom that came from it were well worth it.