Live in Grace, Walk In Love A 5-Day Devotional With Bob GoffSample

GOD ISN’T AN EDITOR, HE’S A CREATOR.

HE’S NOT LOOKING FOR TYPOS IN OUR LIVES.

HE’S LOOKING FOR THE BEAUTY IN THEM.

I didn’t set out to be an author. I wanted to build a school in Africa for child

soldiers. If I wanted to bake cupcakes to sell, people would die. I’ll stick with

schools and words. A friend of mine encouraged me to write a book, so I did. I

figured if there were a couple of typos—no big deal. We sold way over a million

of them and gave all the money away, so I wrote another book. I learned I’m

much better at living stories than making sure all the punctuation is correct,

so I have a few people in my life who love that sort of thing, and they helped

me out. One of them is Jon, who is married to my daughter, Lindsey. Jon is an

engineer, but that also means he’s really good with details, and he really likes

grammar. (I still don’t understand why, but I’m thankful nonetheless.) Jon

would read my words and graciously fix all the errors I made. He didn’t point

out each one and shake his head in disapproval. He just took what I wrote and

made it better.

I used to think God was like an editor trying to find all the typos in my

life, standing over my shoulder like a schoolmarm ready to whack me on the

knuckles with a yardstick. But I’ve learned that God isn’t an editor; He’s a creator.

He’s not giving us the hairy eyeball when we make mistakes. He’s pointing

toward the horizon with a gleam in His eye and asking us to lift our eyes up

toward a better story. He wants to tell a story of redemption. Of everyone He

could use to tell it, He’s made you one of the main characters. He wants you

to keep your eyes on Him.

If there’s a typo or two on a couple of pages of your life, don’t obsess over it.

Keep writing. God’s got this. He’ll help you make the changes you need to make,

but His purpose for your life is much bigger than giving you a failing grade.

 What typo have you been obsessing over?