Is it really broken?
Have you ever had something quit working and you wondered if it was really broken? You looked it all over but couldn’t see any reason why it shouldn’t be working. Or may you drop something and you pick it up and looked it over very carefully and didn’t see any cracks or any evidence of a problem. But the next day it falls apart in your hand.
I work at a print shop and run the big digital machine. There are so many intricate parts and pieces, along with the fact that it is digital that many things can go wrong. Recently, I came into work and started the process of doing all the things I need to do to prepare the machine for the day, cleaning, calibrating color, etc. It wasn’t long into the process when the machine gave me an error code. The error let me know that I need to change a part that is called the cleaning web. It is a web that runs through its cycle and you have to take it out and put and new one in.
The company where we bought the machine leaves some parts there that are easy for me to change out and the webbing is one of them. I have done it before and it is very easy to do. I swapped out the parts but there was a problem. When I put the new part in, the machine was not detecting it as a new part so it would not let me print. I had to call the service department to come in and fix the problem. Now when you call service and when you actually get someone to respond to your call it can be several hours before someone comes to fix it and that means not printing for several hours.
What else could I do?
I had another cleaning web. It wasn’t brand new but a tech had replaced the webbing part of it so that I could reuse it. So I decided to try it to see if it would work. But it did not work either.
When I finally got a call from a tech guy to let me know when he could make it out, he told me that when you replace just the webbing of the part you need to make sure and wind past the blue strip before it will register. I let him know that I did not replace the webbing part myself it was a whole brand new part, done by a tech. Then he let me know he couldn’t come out but would try to find someone that could. I had so much printing to do that it was hard to wait.
I went to the Bindery department and started helping them out. The Lord gave me this idea. We actually have two places in the machine that have this same part. I thought that maybe if I swapped out the parts it would register. So when I went to go try that I noticed that the cleaning web that I had used that the tech had put new webbing in was not wound past the blue line. So I did I wound it and yay it registered with the machine and I was able to get on printing. I still had the brand new one that wouldn’t work but I wasn’t concerned because I would have the tech figure that out when he came in. Now I was up and running and that was all that mattered.
New Webbing
I was thinking about the cleaning web and how it relates to our relationship to God. The brand new part reminds me of how God wants to give us a brand new heart. Where the problem starts to happen is when we try to do things on our own. We have come to God and given Him our heart and he has come in a given us a new heart but then we start to try to do things on our own. And at that point, our new part is not registering with the “Machine”, the One that can keep our heart clean and keep our spiritual machine running correctly.
Then there is the side where we don’t really want God to replace our heart and give us a new one we just want to do a little cleaning. So on our own, we try to replace the “webbing” but the problem, we have is that blue line and our lives are not registering with the “Great Machine” (God). And the blue line is sins that we aren’t willing to give up and they are coming between God and us. But the beauty is that if we confess the Lord will forgive and it will be just like winding the web forward, we will be able to connect with God.
What should we do?
Stay connected to God each day by prayer, the study of His Word, and putting His Word to memory. Put your full trust in Him to do the work in your life. He will lead you and when He shows you the path follow His leading.
The Lord is in no hurry. A lot of times we begin to weave in our human threads to compose the pattern of the web. But He waits until we lay down our own human inventions and will accept His way and will. Then He can come in and do a marvelous work in us.
Dear Father,
Thank You that You will do the work in our lives if we allow You. Lord, we need Your help in doing this. We are so weak and feeble.
Lord, I give you permission to take my heart: for I cannot give it. It is Your property. Keep it pure, for I cannot keep it for You. Save me in spite of myself my weak, unchristlike self. Mold me, fashion me, raise me into a pure and holy atmosphere, where the rich current of Your love can flow through my soul. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer.
In Jesus Name,
Amen
Surrender all to Jesus today and allow Him to weave the web of your life.
What has been a help to you in your walk with the Lord? I would love to have you share about your experience.