by John Grant
“Again Peter denied it, and at that moment a rooster began to crow.”
John 18:27
When I first began to use e-mail and was learning what all the buttons were for, I saw one to click that said “Recall Message.” I thought how convenient that if I sent the wrong message or sent to the wrong person, I could simply click on this link and like a giant cyber vacuum cleaner it would suck everything back in my computer. Wrong!
What it really does is send a new message to the recipient telling them that they should ignore your first text, as it was send in error and then they look real carefully to see what was wrong with it to begin with. The consequences can be disastrous. It’s not as easy as going to the mail room and removing an envelope from the out box before the mailman arrives.
Recently a friend sent me a text message saying that he loved me. Realizing that his wife’s first name and mine are only a letter different, I quickly figured out his mistake, but not before texting back that I loved him too!
When you hit the send button you have said what you said to the people who receive it and there’s no way to get it back. Have you ever seen a glaring error in an e-mail just as it flies from your screen? Sure you have and I have too.
But, this is nothing new. We have experienced the same problem with verbal communication since language began. When we say the wrong thing, not matter how much we ask for forgiveness, what has been said has been said, and words, said or written, can cut like a sharp knife.
I think of Peter, Jesus’ closest, when he denied his Master. For the rest of his life he must have thought many times how much he wished he had never said those words. I look back at things I have said and written that I wish I could take back but can’t. My thoughtless communications have damaged relationships and cost friendships.
It is a good practice to pray and consult God’s Word before we communicate with others. Ask what would Jesus do. I once had a logic professor in college who advised us that whenever we wrote a letter, especially one that was emotional, we should lay it aside overnights and then re-read it the next day to see if that’s really what we wanted to say. I have used that advice and torn up many a letter, but I have also ignored it at times and created problems I didn’t need to have.
So, remember to take your communications with others seriously and be careful what you say to others, as it can have a lasting effect on them and on you, and ask how God’s Word would have you say it.
( a thought on life from John Grant )
John Grant is a former Florida State Senator and is a practicing attorney
You can comment on this devotional online at:
http://thoughtsaboutgod.com/blog/2010/05/08/jg_recall/