It happened oh so quickly. I sat down in a chair and caught my phone clip on the armrest in the process. As I did, my body weight won out and my smart phone belt clip disintegrated. Ok. Not entirely. But it did split into three separate pieces.
Unwilling to spring for a new one, I decided to improvise. You might say I “Macgyver”ed the situation! After studying the matter intently, I gathered up some tongue depressors for use as splints, and then braced the back of the broken clip before reinforcing with black duct tape and finishing the whole process off with black electrical tape. I will let you be the judge how it all looks now…
Unwilling to spring for a new one, I decided to improvise. You might say I “Macgyver”ed the situation! After studying the matter intently, I gathered up some tongue depressors for use as splints, and then braced the back of the broken clip before reinforcing with black duct tape and finishing the whole process off with black electrical tape. I will let you be the judge how it all looks now…
At least it is functional. For now, that is. You see, this is not the first time I have affected this repair. In truth, I first repaired it a little over a week ago. Only then, I failed to reinforce it with splints. The result was a phone clip that looked good for about twenty four hours, but which then quickly gave way to flimsiness and eventually would no longer even hold my phone. Hence the necessity of the repeated process of repair.
Of course I know in my heart that the clip is still broken. I also know that there no real fixing it. Rather, what it needs is to be completely replaced with a whole new one. If I would be honest, I suppose I am just not willing to pay the price. And yet, I know deep down inside that only when I actually ante-up and replace it, affecting a real and permanent solution, will the insufferable process of re-bracing and re-taping actually come to an end.
All of this reminds me of what the writer of the New Testament Book of Hebrews had to say (in chapter 9, verses 19-28):
19When Moses had proclaimed every command of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. 20He said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.”
21In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. 22In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
23It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence.
25Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. 26Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.
27Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, 28so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
His point is that the vicarious sacrifice of animals was not sufficient to remove the sins of men and women. This is because these were not permanent, but temporary in nature. Thus they had to be repeated over and over again. What God did for us in the sacrifice of His one and only Son on an old rugged cross was to offer up a permanent sacrifice, once and for all, for our sin nature.
In so doing, Jesus Christ redeemed us – literally, bought us with a price - and now, as a result, we are finally and forever new creations in Christ Jesus!
And that repair job, real and permanent, looks just fine, not only in my eyes, but also in those of the Lord!
SCRIPTURE SOURCE: http://biblehub.com/niv/hebrews/9.htm.
Of course I know in my heart that the clip is still broken. I also know that there no real fixing it. Rather, what it needs is to be completely replaced with a whole new one. If I would be honest, I suppose I am just not willing to pay the price. And yet, I know deep down inside that only when I actually ante-up and replace it, affecting a real and permanent solution, will the insufferable process of re-bracing and re-taping actually come to an end.
All of this reminds me of what the writer of the New Testament Book of Hebrews had to say (in chapter 9, verses 19-28):
19When Moses had proclaimed every command of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. 20He said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.”
21In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. 22In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
23It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence.
25Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. 26Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.
27Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, 28so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
His point is that the vicarious sacrifice of animals was not sufficient to remove the sins of men and women. This is because these were not permanent, but temporary in nature. Thus they had to be repeated over and over again. What God did for us in the sacrifice of His one and only Son on an old rugged cross was to offer up a permanent sacrifice, once and for all, for our sin nature.
In so doing, Jesus Christ redeemed us – literally, bought us with a price - and now, as a result, we are finally and forever new creations in Christ Jesus!
And that repair job, real and permanent, looks just fine, not only in my eyes, but also in those of the Lord!
SCRIPTURE SOURCE: http://biblehub.com/niv/hebrews/9.htm.
