Deleting the Unneeded Files of Life
More than forty years ago, my dad and I spent hours sorting through old files, and hundreds of old greeting cards and letters. These had belonged to my grandmother (dad’s mother) who felt that every card and letter contained a sentiment that deserved retention, and her files might prove a past action that would support her decision. But as we sorted, we noted most of these materials were useless and destroying them was the right thing to do. Still, we found some “nuggets” worth keeping, and of course, those were retained!
In more recent years, the same was completed with my parents’ collections of files and memorabilia. Yes, like the previous generation, these materials were considered “valuable” by my parents, but when carefully examined, we found no value in them and destroyed them. Today, I did the same with hundreds of files on my computer. What I had for three or more years considered valuable enough to keep, today proved worthless and so I deleted those files without any problem!
Too many of us get attached to customs, traditions, and reminiscences of our lives, and these elements are things we convince ourselves we simply “cannot live without!” While we live, these items may well have no value at all to anyone but us – individually – but that value means nothing to others and will be considered worthless when we die. When those we leave behind sort through our files and memories, they may well know why we kept them, but as our family finds some things valuable enough to keep, all other items will be discarded.
Our lives are like these files, or boxes of cards, or shelves of mementos. We accumulate thousands of sayings, thoughts, actions, customs, traditions, and even convictions that we hold as truth and righteousness, but for which there is found no scriptural command. We’ve done it for so long, said it for so many years, and believed it so fervently without questioning its authenticity, that we recoil a bit when challenged by someone that never heard of such a thing! Some, even when another person proves these “values” as worthless, continue to treasure them and practice them despite the attempted correction. Though many of these things are liberalities (ex: how many songs are sung before prayer; how often we stand for prayer; communion before or after the preaching) there is no “thus sayeth the Lord” for them, even if we hold these practices to be “sacred.” So, when the “old timers” are no more, the “youngsters” delete the files, if you will, and destroy them without thought.
Some things of our personal lives would be best deleted. Again, sayings, customs, and traditions that families may have held as valued practices but are contrary to God’s word need to be discarded and destroyed. “We’ve been doing that in our family for generations,” doesn’t matter to God! “That’s been our belief for as long as any of us can remember,” doesn’t matter to God either! When families continue defending anything contrary to the law of Christ Jesus (i.e., the New Testament) attempting to “justify” it via “family tradition” just won’t work! Both Jews and Gentiles held their “family traditions” as being “acceptable” even after Paul said they were not! (Colossians 2:16 – 19) They still aren’t and should be deleted and discarded!
Last, such files of life are best deleted by us, the living, rather than holding on to such things so firmly as to die with them still retained, and those left behind are forced to deal with such matters. Frankly, some files are no one’s business and if retained, often lead to misconceptions, confusion, or worse. Some of our life’s files only relate half (or less) the full truth of the matter, and even the recorded files fade in time from the reality of the moment. To prove this, have you ever read the diary of someone who has died, and the diary was written when the author was young? How could the reality of the matter be fully known? Such diaries are certainly uninspired (as compared to the Scriptures) and so while at best “entertaining” much of the content would be better off discarded.
The point desired is simple: only keep the best of the best in your life! The truly valued is always that which is in full agreement with God and His word. Both word and deed must be by our Lord’s authority (Colossians 3:17), and so when the files and cherished and the cards and letters of our lives mirror His word in all that we say and do, then there is nothing to discard, no files to delete! In the truest sense, deleting files, cards, and letters of our lives that are contrary to the sacredness of God is called REPENTANCE. As indicated earlier, some of these items are difficult to surrender: some words and deeds of our lives are cherished more than God’s and become difficult to give up! But unless we do, those words and deeds create confusion, misunderstandings, and often worse in the lives we’ve endeavored to teach. Why? Are we so stubborn as to fail to comply with 2 Corinthians 13:5? Do we think God will for some unspoken reason, “overlook” our customs and traditions, our thoughts, and convictions just because of who or what we are? Nonsense! We are commanded to cleanse ourselves from all unrighteousness. This would include deleting the files and destroying the cards and letters we might hold dear just because of the memory, tradition, or custom they grant.
Paul said, “Forgetting the things which are behind …” Lessons learned is not the subject of this verse: the once-valued treasures of a selfish life is the subject of the verse (Philippians 3:13 – 14). It’s time … let’s do some sorting and deleting and destroying so that we will be found pure in His sight!