I have always seemed to have this ridiculous habit of keeping track of everything. It seems like I love having a database on everything I do. I’m not sure what possesses me to do such absurd things. Sometimes having data on certain things really helps. So, how many words have I done so far?
Guess you can say that it started when I was in school, after all the teachers keep records. We can look at how we did last week and know how much we are learning. If they didn’t keep records of our grades, how in the world will we know how well we are improving? Keeping track of how good we did on tests, not only show our strengths, but will show our weaknesses so that we can spend a little more time on that class. What is my grade point average? Show me the data!
This comes up a lot in my blogs but I must speak from experience or else, it might not be true. When I was in my running and biking days, keeping data was a must. It starts with how many days in a row did I run to how many miles did I put in this week? Biking was kind of the same thing, but I get to add the speed. How awesome? More data! All of this would get to where I was more focused on the data rather than my health. Dang, I can’t break my streak! Show me the data!
Then came the data for my jobs. My job as a service repairman in the CATV business had a quota for jobs completed. We needed to keep records of length of time on a call and what was required to complete the call. Well, this easy, how many calls did I do? Was I in the top 3? Show me the data!
Then, as a Network Administrator, the data just overflowed. Data is the measurement for everything in that world. How well are the servers performing, how well are the user’s PC’s performing, how well are the machines on the floor performing? The list is long, but my job performance will be based on how well all of this functions. The only way to see that would be to look at the data. You know it, show me the data!
Ok, now I will get to why this crazy obsession with data is on my mind. I have a real problem with this because I do this with my Bible study. I look at the streak with my Bible study app and feel pretty good. Shoot, according to the data, I’ve only missed one day in almost 3 years. Wow, must mean I’m doing alright. Show me the data!
Now, I also do this with my sins. I can be having a great day and then realize that I said, or did, something that God would just not be happy about. There went my “good” streak. It must have been almost an hour straight! It doesn’t matter about my study streak, that obviously is not helping with my sin streak. Don’t show me the data!!
All of this is coming to my point of this blog, do you think God keeps data on us? If so, I just may be in some serious trouble. I’ve probably had a couple of mental sins while I sit here and type this. Why in the world do I care about doing any good because I just mess it up sooner or later? All the good I can do will not outweigh the bad. No way will I ever be able to even come close to getting the good close to the bad. But guess what? I know a solution to this data problem.
God definitely knows all that we have done, are doing, and will do. Scary thought sometimes. But God loves us so much that He sent His Son to take care of all that bad data. Jesus Christ took all of our sins to the cross with Him. When you put your life in the hands of our Savior, everything changes. The blood of Jesus washes away our sins and all that data is gone. The hard drive has been formatted and nothing remains. You can usually find some sort of data left on a hard drive but the blood of Jesus has us as clean as pure white snow in God’s eyes. Show me the …. oh, there is no data!!
Giving your life to Jesus will change everything in your life. Need to format that hard drive and start brand new? Jesus gives you a new life. Don’t wait for you just might miss your opportunity.
Lamentations 3:22-23
22 The Lord’s acts of mercy indeed do not end,
For His compassions do not fail.
23 They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
