day 1276: 404 Error Messages

"Indeed, we all make many mistakes."

There is no shortage today of talk about web sites not working.  When a website doesn't load or the page cannot be found, we get what is called a "404 Error Page".  At the beginning of internet time that message read, "Room 404 Error" because at the CERN headquarters in Switzerland where the internet was created (sorry Al Gore), any errors were routed to a room on the 4th floor, room 404.  And so it was, a message we all will see was created.  Today many companies try and be creative with their errors. Twitter had the "Fail Whale".  MLB.com shows players getting hit by balls in bad places. The point is that the internet gives us license to make a mistake and get through it. Sometimes I wish I could wear a 404 Error T-Shirt under another shirt so that when I make a mistake, which I make too many, I could flash my error message and move on. But we tend to not to allow that in our work.  We like to dwell on a problem and many times make a mountain from the mole hill. How much better would we be if we fessed up, defined the error, and explained how the mistake wouldn't happen again, all without drama.

As we go to work today and start planning how we are going to sprint between now and the Christmas break, we might as well accept and expect that mistakes are going to be made. And, unfortunately, some of those mistakes will be hurtful to others and ourselves. But this is where God becomes our only salvation. Jesus came to give us a way for our sins to be forgiven. If we are honest with God and ourselves we can accept our errors, offer them to Him for forgiveness and move on.  Today, and this holiday season, let's not dwell on our errors and allow them to set up back or get us down. Instead, let's let God do what He wants to do with us and lift us up and out of our human 404 errors.

Reference: James 3:2 (New Living Translation)