Spell Check

I

t happens every time I sit down to write on the computer.  I’ll be typing along; minding my own business, and suddenly little red lines will appear underneath several words, indicating they have been misspelled.  This drives me bonkers and the more I try to avoid misspelled words, the more of them I type.  Although my intentions are good, I simply cannot avoid the fact that before I complete this Tidbit, I will have stopped several times to correct my typographical errors.

Of course there are also the times when I spell a word correctly but the word itself is completely wrong.  All of you are very kind to overlook my errors but I do appreciate it when you bring them to my attention.  Many times I have emailed a Tidbit only to discover a misspelled word or a misused one.  When I come across them or when they are pointed out to me, a deep groan wells up within me and I thoroughly regret having committed such a blunder.

There is, however, a positive side to the spellchecker on my word processor.  It constantly brings my shortcomings to the fore and makes me aware of the numerous mistakes I make when I write.  Were it not for this feature, I would make many more errors and my writing would be completely riveted with all types of blunders.  The role of the spellchecker is to locate my mistakes, no matter how small, and to bring them to my attention so I can correct them.

It shouldn’t surprise us to learn that the idea of the spellchecker goes all the way back to the time of Christ.  Jesus often spoke of our mistakes and how God’s love is so complete and so pure that he will not allow any flaw or any sin to blemish our character.  God means to bring into the open anything that prevents us from conforming perfectly to the image of Jesus so that we will bring glory and honor to him.

Luke 12:2 demonstrates this great truth, “But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known.”  There are two distinct sides to this passage of scripture.  We can find both a word of warning and a word of encouragement in these words from our Lord.  As a warning, Jesus states categorically that everything we do will one day be brought to light.  That is, all our actions, our motives, our feelings, and our intentions will all be revealed.  God is not as interested in what we do as he is in the spirit in which we do it.  Performing noble and worthwhile deeds is meaningless if the motives of our heart are anything less than pure.

However, this passage also serves as a great encouragement to the Christian.  Seen in its positive light, this passage tells us that God is constantly watching over us, supervising our actions, motives, thoughts, and deeds to point out the areas where we make mistakes.  Spending time in his word reveals the areas in our lives which need attention.  These areas are the ones constantly underlined and highlighted as we write the story of our daily lives. As soon as we do something wrong, God’s word brings it to our attention so we can correct it.

As with the spell check feature on a word processor, we do have a choice.  We can both acknowledge the error and correct it or we can choose to ignore it with the intent of “fixing” it later.   Unfortunately, once we choose to ignore the warning, seldom, if ever, do we actually go back and change our mistake. The result is a document full of typos and misspelled words and those errors cause distractions for those reading our writing.

Are you heeding or ignoring God’s spell check of your life today?  Do you see the areas that are underlined, indicating things you need to correct and work on?  Are you taking the time to address these areas of difficulty or are you ignoring the warning, thinking of attending to them later?  Remember, God brings the areas of our lives into light so we can become more like his son.  Won’t you let God run your life through his spell checker today?