Oct
30
Fix Your Bugs
Filed Under Devotional
I apologize in advance for the highly technical metaphor I’m about to employ, but I’ve been through some technical process training this week. One of the concepts we’ve talked about quite a bit is the idea of catching bugs in the code we write as soon as possible. Instead of not hearing about it until days or weeks later when the testers find it or, heaven forbid, the customers find it, I’m supposed to be working with some new processes that will allow me to find bugs only minutes after they’ve been introduced. This means less time for the bug to cause problems and less of a chance that other code will build on that mistake. The rule of thumb is that the longer it takes for anyone to notice a bug after it’s introduction, the more expensive it is to fix.
The analogy just kind of falls out here. How often do we inspect our own lives to look for “bugs”? Do we notice if we’ve made a mistake or slipped up a few minutes ago? Or, are we so disconnected from God that we don’t notice anything up for days or weeks? What are the side-effects of letting it linger that long?
“Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” James 4:8
How expensive is it to not fix your “bugs” until days, weeks, or months later? How long do you have to go to get back to where you were? How much better is it when you repent, ask for forgiveness, and get realigned with God after only minutes or hours of drifting?
How frequently should you be checking for “bugs”? How rigorous are you about getting them fixed?
That’s a lot of questions, but I think you already know the answers.