Convicted. Again.

Scriptures: Psalm 40, 1 Peter 1-2

The Lord is so gracious. When I was a kid, my Dad had this incredible turntable. It was state of the art for 1982, had a diamond tipped stylus, and any record you played on it sounded beyond amazing. He loved that record player. It was his baby. Well, me being the person I am, loved it too. I would check out records from the library (man am I dating myself here, or what!) or buy them from my favorite record store, bring them home and crank them up, amazed that my father trusted me with such expensive machinery. One day, I brought home a 45 single (for those that don't know, those are the little ones with the big holes) and put it on. My arm slipped, and the needle scraped against the side of the turntable. I looked down, not believing what I had done, and saw a piece of metal on the platform. The needle. Oh God, it's the needle. I broke the needle off. What have I done! Immediately I set to work to cover up what I had done. I pulled the record off, covered the turntable back up, and swore that if I ignored this hard enough, it would go away. The days of the week that followed were agonizing. I sat there dreading Saturday. Saturday was the day my Dad enjoyed his time with his records. So Saturday came. True to form, my father took his coffee into the den, unsheathed the turntable, selected a Sinatra album, and put it on. The music that played stunned me. How is music playing? I broke it! Or DID I? After he finished, I went immediately to it. Uncovered it. Opened it up. Looked for that piece of metal I knew was the evidence of my misdeed. And there it was. A dog hair. I never broke it after all. There's a point to this. We go through so much to hide our sin, to say there's nothing wrong, when we know that there is. God knows our every move. You're not getting anything over on him. His grace allows us to believe that we're pulling the wool over his eyes. No one gets away with anything. I think what I got out of my reading this morning, is that conviction doesn't have to equal fear, or even overwhelming shame, like that 12 year old that thought he broke the record player. God chastens us, but lovingly, and without flaw. Praise God for his word. Yes, Saturday is coming, but how great is the knowledge that Jesus has already been to the woodshed.