Please Be Kind, Please Rewind

Please be kind please rewind

In today’s world, technology is advancing at incredible speed. Just 20 years ago, most cell phones could only be used for their most basic service, calling and sending an occasional text message. But today the cell phone has become probably the most used device out of all electronic devices. Not just a phone anymore, it has basically become a portable computer, a wallet, an entertainment studio, car keys- the list goes on and on.

Something else that has greatly changed over the years is how people watch movies. Today many people watch their movies digitally through a streaming service, or they might throw a disc into a player, but not too long ago movies were recorded onto video cassette tapes. A plastic case with magnetic tape inside, these tapes were far different than today’s DVD discs. With a DVD, as soon as the movie is done you can just take the disc out and put it away until the next time, but with a video cassette tape, as soon as the movie was done you first needed to rewind the tape back to the beginning so that it would be ready the next time. 

This was such an important thing that the movie rental stores would put a sticker on each tape that read, “Please be kind, please rewind.” They wanted the tapes brought back to the beginning once again, ready to watch again for the next person.

And that reminds me of some important qualities that Christians need to have: the ability to forgive, and reconciliation. 

To start, we first need to define what these two words mean. To forgive means “to pardon; to waive any negative feeling or desire for punishment, retribution, or compensation.” I think that is pretty self explanatory. Forgiveness is the act of releasing any hard, angry feelings towards someone for an offense that they have committed. 

Now for reconciliation. To reconcile means “to restore a friendly relationship or to bring back to harmony.” So if two close friends have an argument and don’t talk to each other for a period of time, if they are able to work things out in the future and become friends once again, that is reconciliation. They are like those video tapes, rewound back to the beginning, and ready to start again.

Forgiveness and reconciliation go together, although there are those who claim differently. Forgiveness without reconciliation is not really forgiveness. We just read that to forgive somebody means to waive any negative feeling towards someone, so if a person will not bring themselves back into harmony (reconcile) with the other individual, then they do not understand what forgiveness and reconciliation really are.

Romans 5:6-10  “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”

So we see that we have been separated from God’s presence because of our sins. It was sin that separated Adam and Eve from paradise in the Garden of Eden, and it is sin that causes our physical death. It is this sinful, mortal body that we are in that separates us from living forever with God in Heaven, and the only way for us to be brought back to how Adam and Eve were created is through forgiveness. And that forgiveness is only found through one Man, Jesus Christ.

Through Jesus’ forgiveness we are able to be cleansed from our sin. Through Jesus we have the ability to be brought back to the beginning, and brought back into a place of harmony with God. Separated because of our sin, forgiven and reconciled back through the blood of Christ. 

Have you shown this kind of treatment to others who may have wronged you in the past, but have since apologized and asked for forgiveness? Have you rewound yourself back to the beginning once again?

In Christ,

Andrew