Restart

In my day job, when I am asked to assist an employee with a problem, I often ask them a very important question. If their response is in the negative, I nearly always ask them to do this one thing before we go any further. This one thing has solved more problems in the type of work that I perform than anything else. Recently, as I asked an employee this question, she looked at me with a sheepish grin (one of those grins that said, “I know I should be doing this more often, but I’m not) and told me “no.”

Before I finish that story, I think the first time I remember seeing a verse next to his signature was during high school. You see, my dad’s company had gone out of business and for a period of 3-4 months, he had to go out-of-state for employment to provide for our family (if you only knew my dad – he is the best Christian I know). So, he got on a plane in Missoula, Montana and flew to southern California to work with my uncle in his construction business.

I believe I was fifteen years old at the time and the oldest of five other siblings in the house. Having your dad gone for that amount of time and being the oldest sibling in the house, I started to give my mother some problems. No doubt, I was acting out of rebellion and pride. One day, I received a handwritten card from my dad. It was one of the few I have received in my lifetime from him but I remember it to this day. He encouraged me to get right with God & my mom myself and not wait until he got home to care for it. I don’t exactly remember if I turned completely around in that situation or not. However, I do remember seeing a Scripture reference written next to his name when he signed off. It is this reference that I have seen over the years when I have ever received any correspondence from him. The verses are Lamentations 3:22-23:

22 It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

Back to the original story…the question that I ask nearly every employee that has been having problems with their PC that day is this: Have you restarted your PC since this issue has manifested itself?

You see, in my day job, I am a Field Services Technician for a large international plastics company. And their PC’s primarily run the Windows operating system. And anyone that has worked with Windows for a long time knows this – a restart to a Windows system fixes most things! Nearly every day I see this played out…after asking the employee to restart their system, the problem vanishes! Yes – I get paid a decent wage to tell people to restart their PC’s every day! What I find amazing is that although most employees know they should restart their PC’s on a frequent basis (I do every day), they often fail to do so and the problems that they have are just compounded.

I also see this phenomenon played out in people’s lives every day. No, we are not talking the Windows operating system, we are talking the Human operating system. One that is much more complex and intricate than any piece of software that Microsoft will ever put out. I come across many (at church, at work, across a wide spectrum of humanity) who have not “restarted” their day. They are carrying yesterday’s problems into day. Truthfully, many of them are carrying problems from last week, last month, last year, maybe even problems from many, many years ago and they have not “restarted” in a long time.

Perhaps this is you. A problem in your life is consuming you right now. The truth is it has been consuming you for a long time. You need to go to the Lord and claim Lamentations 3:22-23. He says His mercies are new every morning. Every morning! There is a reason God put that in the Bible! He knew that we couldn’t continue to carry those struggles, problems, and issues every single day without “restarting” with a fresh dose of His mercy each day.

Friend, why don’t you restart and allow God to take away the problem that has been plaguing the operating system of your life lately? You will be amazed at how faithful He is to give you the mercy you need to face whatever it is you are facing.