Ctrl + Alt + Delete

We’ve all been there: you’re at your trusty laptop or desktop computer, groovin’ along as you surf the internet superhighway, only to have your computer “freeze up.” Windows will no longer close, the word processor is no longer processing, and your cyber-life, much like Buck Rogers, exists in suspended animation. However, you are not alarmed because restarting your computer, and thus erasing any malfunction, can happen with the stroke of a simple combination of keys: Ctrl + Alt + Delete. Suddenly, your computer shuts down, reboots, and any past infraction is forgotten—all with a simple command.

Unfortunately, real-life does not mirror technology. Restarting a computer: easy. Restarting life: well, that’s an entirely more complicated and delicate matter. Imagine how wonderful life would be if we could erase, reboot, restart when the going gets tough. Scathing words, careless deeds, heartache, sins of human behavior, all gone and erased from existence with a few simple keys, rather than years of resentment, guilt, and therapy.

If life were like an Etch-A-Sketch, where we could shake the screen and remove a previous picture and start afresh, would we be a happier people?

My answer: Yes.

However—this is where God’s Grace enters the proverbial picture. The sad, painful truth [of which I am learning more about each passing day] is that we cannot erase the past. We cannot reboot, shake the Etch-A-Sketch, wave a magic wand, etc. in order to remove pain from our lives. Intentionally (and unintentionally), I have sinned in my life. I have made some bad choices and have wrestled with more than a few demons. Facing these demons is proving to be the hardest thing I have ever done, but facing such demons is necessary in order to conqueror them. I pray for guidance and grace from God and also for patience from my sisters and brothers. Most of all, I wish with the greatest strength and fervor of my heart that some of my past infractions could, in fact, be erased from memory and existence. I am sure that I am not alone in these thoughts.

But my sins are there, etched into a permanent collective of the sinfulness of humanity. I can do nothing to alter the past, nor can I erase the memories of my sins from the consciousness of others. And I also realize that when it comes to apologies, actions are indeed louder than the din of any words. I can type about grace and forgiveness until the cows come home, but without application, all of it is utter and total bullshit. Period.

Ergo, it is time for me and time for you to live into the reality of Grace. Grace is what lets us wake up in the morning. Grace is the small pocket of light in my soul that leads me out of darkness; grace is the “still, small voice” which whispers that all is not lost. Grace is what motivates me to keep on living, keep on loving, keep on learning. Grace cannot erase, but grace is capable of transforming. Like the Phoenix rises from the ashes, so does Grace allow us to rise out of the ashes of our sin.

On this second Sunday of Easter, most churches focus on the account of “Doubting” Thomas, the apostle who demanded to see the risen Lord first hand, rather than believe in apostolic “hearsay.” I find it interesting that when Thomas sees the risen Lord, he sees the scars in Jesus’ hand, the scars from the wounds in his side. Although Jesus is resurrected, his body still bears the mark of human sin. Jesus was not simply “rebooted” when he resurrected; he still bears the evidence of the crucifixion. However, Jesus’ body is newly transformed and although the evidence of sin still exists, through the grace, miracle, and power of the resurrection, the Sin itself is transformed.

So may we all be transformed through this overwhelming love.