Grace Beyond Blunder

I was in the UK this week for a number of routine business meetings. This time, something ‘interesting’ happened to me at the airport. Well, sort of – interesting can mean many things, as you’re about to discover.

Long Day

I spent the first part of the day working from home and playing daddy with Isabel. As usual, wifey was the hero of the day; feeding baby, cleaning, baking meat pies (yummy!).

The airport taxi arrived at 15:30. I was already tired. It felt like a full day (Isabel, coupled with back-to-back virtual meetings, phone calls and emails is more than a full day).

Image courtesy of digitalart FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The Text That Went Wrong

I have a travel routine; I typically call or text my wife to say I’ve arrived before boarding my flight. So I called but she didn’t pick (by now you know who would make her miss my call). Then I sent this message:

 

“Got to the airport, waiting to board the flight. Love you”

 

The only problem, as I would later discover, was the text didn’t go to my wife but a sister in the church!!!

Ouch!

My face turned blue. What a blunder! It all happened too fast. And of course a series of apologetic texts and calls followed. How do you say sorry for that? On reflection, it could have been worse.

3 Lessons from my Blunder

As I reflected on my grave genuine mistake, I felt God was using the experience to teach me some key lessons:

1. Don’t send personal text messages when you’re mentally worn out. I hear you saying, “Duh! Obviously…” but you never know.
2. God has a great sense of humor. He can bring the greatest of life lessons from the gravest of human errors. I have experienced it severally in my life – my airport episode being the latest. After the steam blew past and the sister graciously accepted my profound apology, my wife and I shared a great laugh about the experience. What we found funny, I could’t tell but I guess that’s one of the many weird things about being married.
3. But the most powerful lesson God laid on my heart was this one and I think you need to read this:

 

God’s grace goes beyond our biggest blunder. (tweet this)

 

We mess up. We make mistakes. We fall, sometimes beyond our wildest imagination. But God’s grace avails for us when we step back, when we repent, when we allow Him in. Then He raises us to stand and press on.

Isn’t it time for you to do just that?

When was the last time you experienced grace out of your blunder?