REVISIONS

When I was an English teacher, I made my students write multiple drafts of every paper.  Generally speaking, they hated revising and re-writing their work.  From time to time, one of them would turn in a rewrite that was identical to the original paper. 

I’d give it back saying, “Go over the corrections and suggestions I marked on your first draft and revise this.”

The student would say, “I hate revising.  Just gimme my F, Mr. Graves.”

That never worked.  I’d reteach the grammar and composition principles. I’d make them read their papers back to me.  I’d call their parents on my cell phone.  I’d literally stand over them until word-by-word, sentence-by-sentence they’d revised their paper according to the standards I was teaching.

They had to do the revisions.  It was the only way to make them better writers.

“How,” I would declaim, “will you ever get better at something if you don’t see what you’re doing wrong?  And what’s the point of seeing what you’re doing wrong if you don’t go back and do it better?”

Jesus promised His disciples that when He went away, the Holy Spirit would come.  In John 16: 7,12 Jesus referred to the Holy Ghost as “the Helper” and “the Spirit of Truth.”

The Holy Spirit would “help” because when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment (John 16:8).  In other words, the Holy Spirit helps us by showing us the truth about what we’ve done wrong, how we should do it right, and what consequence/grade we get if we don’t go back and do better.  He marks our lives like a paper and then teach us precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little … (Isaiah 28: 10) until we’ve rewritten/ repented and changed/ transformed our works according to the standards Jesus is teaching us. 

The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you (John 14: 26)

As a college freshman, I took an “honors college” English composition class.  The class was filled with students on academic scholarships.  When the professor returned our first college essays, one of my classmates looked stricken.  He went pale (and everybody in this class was Black).    Later on we found him in the dorm holding out his paper, pacing circles, and ranting like a character in a Shakespearean monologue.

“Look at it!” he cried.  “Look at my paper.  Look at all the reeeeed.  It’s like she stabbed it with a pen.  Like she stabbed me and there is my blood.   LOOK AT IT!”

(I am not making this up.)

We hate revising our works.  We don’t want to do all that repenting.   We don’t want to face the old and deep and wrong ways in which we express our lives.  When the Holy Spirit convicts us, it hurts.  It hurts like a pen stabbing into our hearts.  The Lord points out our sin and then demands that we LOOK AT IT.

We don’t wanna do that.  We’d rather fail.

But you have to do the revising.  You  have to do the repenting and changing.

Out of the Old Testment, the Lord commands us to be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. (Lev 11:44; Lev 11:45; Lev 19:2; Lev 20:7; Lev 20:26)

In the New Testament, Jesus instructs us, Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. (Matthew 5: 48)

That is the standard.  So how will we ever get right if we don’t accept what God is telling us we are doing wrong?  And what’s the point of God telling us what we’ve done wrong if we don’t go on and do better?

Don’t sulk, and lament, and give up when the Holy Spirit marks out where your living needs to be revised. 

Accept it.  Fix it.  Rejoice that the Lord cares enough to help you get it right.

That college classmate of mine:  he rewrote that paper.  He made it through the blood.  He graduated before I did, with  two degrees.  One of them was a B.S. in English.

Do the revising.  It’s worth it.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama.

Call  334-288-0577
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To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme@blogspotcom.

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