God is not looking for typos in our lives

​For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to be a writer. Every time I'd get serious about it, though, the work and commitment required to be one would too easily wear on me and I'd give up.

The most exhausting part of it was I was never really good with grammar and punctuation and sentence structure. I read books and watched videos about where a comma goes. I familiarized myself with why I wasn't allowed to start a sentence with a conjunction. I tried to commit myself to placing the nouns and verbs in the exact right places to make sure their was proper "flow."

I'd write a sentence, read over it to make sure I'd complied with all the writing rules of the world, then move on to the next sentence. I'd repeat this for a paragraph or two and then close it up and say, oh well, I'll try again tomorrow.

Then one day I decided that I didn't want to be a writer. I decided I'd rather just tell stories.

Do you know the most beautiful part of that decision? When you decide you just want to tell stories, you decide you're going to tell stories to people who HAVE stories. And chances are really good their stories aren't perfect. So they're probably somewhat delighted to read your story isn't so perfect either.

Including the part where you put your periods and commas in the wrong places.

For many years, that's how I was with my relationship with God. I spent all my time memorizing the rules. I'd look back on every decision I made and every conversation I had with friends and co-workers and analyze them through God's commands and guidelines.

In doing so, I almost always came away feeling like God was a movie producer screaming "cut cut cut."

I say this all the time when I'm talking to different groups. If some genie in a bottle handed me an eraser and said, here you go Keith, here's a life eraser. Today's your lucky reset day. Erase away any decade in your life. Wipe your life clean of it forever.

I always say I'd take that eraser and run as quickly as I could toward the decade of my 20s. Oh the enthusiasm I'd have watching those ten years disappear. With each wipe, I'd get to witness destruction and darkness and lifelessness vanish - like magic.

I know now, though, that's not how God sees that decade. God looks at those years and says, oh, I can make something out of that. I love the material you've given me here, Keith. I'm going to use those years to create redemption and healing and unconditional.

One thing I've learned from God on that one is I too often run around looking at other people's lives, and if even on the inside, I'm screaming "cut cut cut." I have an eraser ever ready to hand them and tell them it's your luck day - I'm going to let you erase that decision out of your life.

Then God grabs the eraser from me and says, not so fast. I think I can create something out of that.