There are few things in my life that make me pray as hard as I can immediately. One of them is seeing the beach ball of death.
All of the mac users out there know what I am talking about. When you are working on a project that has taken you hours or even days to complete, you get towards the end of a project and the curser turns the the infamous beach ball of death. For all of you who don’t know what I am talking about it is the “thinking” symbol on a Mac. Apple must have designed it to look happy and hopeful but all that happens to me when I see it is pray to God with as many Saints as I can round up and that the wheel stops and I can save my work.
In the mist of this, I have flash backs of when I could have saved the project I was working on. “Only if I would have saved it 2 hours ago I would have salvaged the essential pieces.” I begin to sweat and put my head on the desk and pray to the patron saint of Adobe Programs that it unfreezes and I can save it right away.
But as it spins and spins to no avail, I realize that I have the chance to wipe the slate clean and start over with a “force quit.” Starting from square one ALL OVER AGAIN. Is that possible? Maybe I should wait just another 2 minutes.
However this “horrific” event helps me to put not only my designs in perspective but also my relationship with God. There are tons of things in my life that I have tried to force in my life am waiting on the “Beach ball of death” to come back to the plan and path that “I” feel is the right way for me to go. But deep in my heart I know that Christ wants me to “force quit” what I am currently doing not because it is bad or evil but because I excluded God from the entire process. God calls me to start a new just like he does now in Lent.
He calls us to wipe our hearts clean of any thing we have in there to let Himself come in and fill it up. To start building it the right way, the way it was meant to be. And even better then the first time.
An art director of mine once told me this pearl of wisdom after I had a project totally crash on me that took me about a day to do. He said “Zach, it always goes faster the second time.” At the time I couldn’t believe he would have told me that but looking back it did make sense. The project went a lot smoother and actually turned out better in the end.
I pray that you (and I) can trust Christ enough in your life for you to “force quit” the direction you are currently making for yourself and allow Him to rebuild you according to His design. (**and remember to save your work)
