DEVOTION: It's Gone! (Ray Hawkins)

It’s a lovely morning as I sit in front of the computer. As it boots up I’m impatient as I am itching to put my thoughts on paper. I’ve a story to tell a plot to unravel, readers to capture. The hours goes by as my fingers find the right keys to fashion the tangible from the mists of the mind.

Suddenly I yell as if bitten by a rabid dog.

What am I going to do? All that work snuffed out and I don’t know how. Oh what am I going to do? Didn’t I save it? Why didn’t I have a back-up? Where can it be?

Lord, I feel sick.

So much time and effort vaporised somehow or other. Did the computer consume it? How can I start again? I won't remember all that I wrote.

Oh God, I want to scream!

If it had been blown up by a bomb or swept away in a tornado it would be easier to bear - although not much easier. Not knowing how it happened is dreadful. It would be easier to blame someone or something than to admit that I might be the cause of my own disaster. That’s probably a major factor in my angst – I’m the only one I can blame.

Lord, cool me down please.

I’m so angry with myself that it will probably spill over to how I speak to my friends and family. Save them from me, or at least from my fumes and fuss. I know it is not the end of the world, even though it feels like it just at this moment. Carelessness has its price.

Your Word says that You have the grace and power to restore the years that the locusts have eaten. I imagine that such a renewal takes time and a person or nation needs to be patience to enjoy your miracle of mercy. Well, my prayer is not in the same league as what Joel was on about, but how are You in restoring the hours the computer has devoured?

No, I’m not trying to sidestep my responsibility and sweat in rewriting. What I’m asking is that You work on me with discipline and hope so that I will see my labour bud and blossom again. Deliver me from self pity. Don’t let Satan have any cause to smirk. And please, Lord, may I learn from this and be a lesson to others not only about computers but about hope when things don’t go as expected.

Thank you Lord for your cooling presence!

Amen.

A writer’s consolation. 2 Peter 1:3-11.

Take heart. The computer may have evaporated the words but I haven’t lost the plot.

RAY HAWKINS (Tasmania) is a retired Churches of Christ (Australia) minister. He is married to Mary, a multi-published author. They are parents to three children and ‘spoilers’ of 5 grandchildren. Ray still preaches at a newly formed Baptist Church and as other opportunities arise. He helps at their son and daughter-in-law’s sea horse and fresh-water fish farm. He and Mary have experienced three short-term mission trips to African countries as well as ministered in the U.K.