Faulty Confessions

Dear Faith Family,

“The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate,” (Genesis 3:12).  

Are you aware that if you reverse the wires coming to and from a ground fault circuit interrupter receptacle it won’t work. Who knew?! See, I had a bad gfi receptacle that would trip whenever I would turn on the electric smoker. Bummer right? After numerous failed “fixes”, and the counsel of wise friends, I decided that it was the gfi receptacle.

Easy fix, right? Turn off breaker at the box. Check. Pull out existing receptacle. Check. Line up the new receptacle with the existing receptacle and move wires to new receptacle. Check. Turn breaker back on. Check. Power! NO check!

And for your bonus edification, its best to tackle such a project on a tight schedule with much external pressure. NOT! Better yet? Maybe wait until time and wise support are in greater supply. The rest of the story? Receptacle back in the box neatly set in the back seat of my truck with the receipt to be returned. It’s obviously a ground faulty receptacle!

Next day…a dear friend with some of that wisdom stuff came and installed the receptacle correctly. Turns out it was user error! What are the chances of that? Blame shifting comes naturally. Must have been faulty circumstances, stuff, or people. Duh.

Apparently that’s not a new idea. It only took three chapters for Adam to throw his bride under the bus when God asked a convicting question. How convenient. After all, isn’t it someone else’s fault when we get mad? Isn’t someone else to blame when we are unkind? And when we make bad decisions, isn’t there someone or something that forced us to such poor decisions?

What if, instead, a fault was an opportunity for us to own up to our need for help? I think that’s called confession. What does it look like when we own our sin (not try to pin it on someone or something else) and fall on the mercy of our God? Isn’t that when we experience the forgiveness of God?

Forgiven,

Pastor Karl