A Blacked-Out Situation

We’ve all had that moment when our smartphones just spontaneously decided to bug out, I mean proper start doing the hokey pokey when you’re trying to message someone, call someone or just trying to get something done. You at the beginning don’t get frustrated, just a little concerned. Perhaps the phone kept freezing, or switching applications, maybe it started calling random people or perhaps even turning itself on and off. I had an iPhone in the past which kept switching itself to a black screen, stayed blacked out for at least a couple of hours or even days. It came to a point that my concern descended into frustration because I couldn’t seem to get to the exact root of the problem. I was in a situation in which my phone seemed to keep on trying to take control over itself. Finally, after a while my frustration turned into anger, because now my phone decided to blackout when I was in the middle of a message, a phone call or a video. In the beginning, I decided to see if it’d fix itself, I’d put my phone down, not having contact with it for hours on end but nothing seemed to change. The iPhone kept blacking out, so I decided after a lot of consideration I’d take it to a phone repairer and find out why it kept blacking out.

The guy at the back of a desk first of all asked me a few questions, like what happened prior to the phone blacking out and when it usually began blacking out in the beginning. It was then I realised that the reason for the phone blacking out was because a few weeks before hand, I was in the kitchen, with my phone ‘safely’ lodged in my shoulder bag, when I decided to bend over to pick something out of my shopping when the phone slipped from my bag and fell until the ground. After that incident, I remembered that after hitting the ground, it sustained a crack to the screen and it was then that it blacked out for a while and then came back on. And that was when I recognised that, the reason for the constant blackouts was because of the fall. So first, I got the crack fixed, and now that I knew the root of the problem I got the internal parts fixed. But not long after, the phone blacked out again, but this time permanently. Confused and livid I finally decided to take it to the maker of the phone, the Apple store itself.

Handing it over to them I explained to them the history of the phone and why I had decided to bring it to them. After evaluating the phone, the staff told me that the person who had allegedly repaired the phone had just made it worse, now the motherboard was damaged and they had also stolen some valuable parts. I remember clearly that the staff member asked me, ‘Why didn’t you just come to us instead of going to a third party?’ I was speechless. Now my phone was gone forever, never going to wake up again unless – I purchased a new phone. So, that’s exactly what I did. Okay, so you must be one hundred percent confused right now, not really knowing where this story was meant to be going. Well, that’s easy. Let’s put you in my place, and replace the phone as your heart. In the beginning your heart was fine, your spiritual life was the highest it had ever been and you were conquering temptations left, right and centre. Until one day, you fell. Maybe it was a heart break, a failed exam, a rejection from a college or university or perhaps it was a sin which you committed which you felt unforgivable for.

Whatever it was, it broke you and for a while, you blacked out. You stopped praying, stopped reading the Word (the Bible), stopped trusting yourself, stopped trusting others and perhaps even stopped trusting God or any other higher being you believed in. You tried taking control over your life with your own power and started trying out new means to give you happiness and strength. But just like my phone switched back on, you came right back like nothing ever happened, yet you were still cracked. And every now and then you blacked out. Finally, you realised that what you were doing wasn’t right so, you started seeking guidance and support but from the wrong people or the wrong things. Yes, you fixed the crack, and now you looked okay and didn’t feel too bad but now the internal damage just got worse, so bad in fact you blacked out and this time you thought forever. But unlike my poor iPhone 5c (just praising him for that iPhone 5s Plus, can I get an amen?), the maker of your heart instead of declaring that there is nothing he can do, and throwing you away, he decided to fix you and this time permanently but – only if you give him the permission to.

Let me just put this out there, I’m not perfect trust me I’m far from. In fact, I’ve been in a place in which I thought the sin I committed was so unforgivable and that God as holy and perfect as he is didn’t want to look at or even hear a sinful, ratcheted sinner like me. Yes, I’ve been there and it took a very long time for me to finally release my guilt, and give him the permission to fix my fractured heart and make me whole again. Releasing guilt is never easy, but see it’s the guilt that removes the valuable parts in your heart, parts like hope, trust, faith and peace. But the subject of guilt – is a whole other post by itself. Nevertheless, remember that the blackout period in your life does not need to be permanent, I don’t know, perhaps you’re experiencing the black out or the glitch up in your life right now, just remember that there is someone who is willing to fix up your blacked out situation, who is willing to repair your cracked up situation and turn you into a new creature. All he wants to know is, will you permit him to?

#acceptance #newlife #reset #God