I was listening to CBC radio one day as they aired an autobiography of a Canadian musician unknown to me, but interesting nevertheless. As he told his story he shared his music so I got a sense of who he was. Mind you, he wasn’t entirely memorable. What I do remember, however, was when he said that one day, just before a concert, he looked over ninety or so of his songs and decided that none of them were any good.
You read correctly: this gentleman no longer like his own music. He didn’t think the songs were relevant; didn’t think they were who he was; didn’t think that they were suitable, for whatever reason. So, he chose to start fresh. He chose to write new songs, I guess. I didn’t hear much more of the story after that. I was so shocked to think he would see his own music in that light that I got lost in my own thoughts.
I wondered about how a person could see their own works as no longer valid. I wondered about how someone could negate their own efforts for no particularly good reason. I wondered about how fragile we humans are that we can be so self-critical about our own accomplishments.
Of course, there was also something very symbolic about his choice. He chose to basically wipe the slate clean of his past. Similarly, we humans are in constant need of having our slates wiped clean of our mistakes. In other words, we have to be forgiven on a regular basis. Not everyone might like to face that reality; not everyone may realize that it’s part and parcel of growing and maturing as a human being; nevertheless, without regular, constant cleansing of our souls we are less than who God fully intends us to be.
It isn’t easy to own up to that need. Admitting we’ve blown it accidentally is a pretty hard thing to do; it’s even harder to tell God we did something wrong on purpose. We still have to do it. We have to face God and tell the truth about ourselves. God, through Jesus, will take care of the rest. Forgiveness comes as easily to God as sin does to His creation. It might not be easy for us to forgive, but it is God’s nature to wipe the slate clean as long as we confess we’ve blown it.
Here’s the most amazing part of this process. Admitting our guilt relieves us of punishment, because being weighed down by sin is the best punishment ever. Our guilt, shame and separation from God cause us to suffer enough without any help from God. That’s not what our Creator wants for us; God wants us to be whole and holy, and all it takes to get back in His good book is to let Him know what we’ve done so that He can in turn forgive us. Come clean with God and He’ll make you clean as new. All that shame will go away. The guilt will be erased. It’s a new beginning, whenever you need it. And trust me, no if’s, ands or buts about it, there is no better feeing than starting out with a clean slate.
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