Hidden Files

I've spent about 2 hours trying to get my mail app to import old mailboxes. It should have been easier and quicker but the operator didn't know what he was doing.

Here's the story. I opened Mail on my MacBookPro this afternoon. It worked fine. I hadn't check mail on this computer in a few days so it went through the process of checking mailboxes, downloading any email I had not already deleted on other devices, and deleting messages I had deleted already elsewhere.

Then I needed to reboot for another issue and when I tried accessing Mail again a message came up telling me that I needed to import mailboxes from earlier versions of Mail before I could continue. OK, no problem. I clicked "import" and waited.

A minute later another message came up telling me that the import failed because of some gobbledy-goop I didn't understand. So like any good computer user, I tried again. Same result. Then I remembered the first line of response the IT guy at my previous employer always used - "Reboot!"

So I rebooted. Same thing.

My next favorite thing to do is to Google the exact phrase in the message box hoping that someone else has already plodded through the problem and I could just simply copy his solution.

I found plenty of threads talking about this issue but it was too technical. I needed a simple 1, 2, 3 answer in simple English.

Then I searched the Apple resources and found a couple of things I understood and tried. One was really easy and allowed me to actually get into the Mail app for the first time in over an hour.

The second super secret solution was to help me regain the old email I had saved in Mail prior to this unannounced and mysteriously downloaded upgrade.

I found the old mailboxes tucked away in a nest of computer drawers in a never-ending computer file cabinet. But they were in a hidden folder! I could get to them in Finder but not in the Mail app to import them.

So I spent a long, long time trying to figure out who to "unhide" my hidden mailbox files. And I did and all is right and well and just the way I like it.

Deep within each of us are some super secret things we've done. We think nobody knows about them. We think nobody will ever discover them. As time goes on we become arrogant about our ability to keep others from finding out.

But God knows. He sees the secret places in my heart. I'm not exactly sure of the emotion he has regarding that stuff. I don't think it's anger although most of us have heard that God is angry because of sin and is just waiting to fling a lightning bolt of judgment down upon us.

I believe God is just and holy and righteous. I believe he will judge every person. But I really don't think that's the emotion God feels while you and I are trying to hide our sins from everybody else.

Maybe what God is is grieved by our sin. When you stop and think about what God has already done to deal with our sins, it seems grieved could be a good description of his response to our sins.

"For God loved the world in this way: He gave his One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16 HCSB).

God's done a lot to deal with our sin. Jesus died receiving the punishment for our sins so that we could be reconciled to God - restored to right relationship with him. God freely offers salvation, forgiveness, redemption to anyone who will accept the gift. It's his grace extending freedom from what we are trying to hide and held prisoner by.

Have you ever tried to give someone a very special gift but they refused it? How did you feel? In some small way that is how God feels when you try to hide your sin rather than receive the forgiveness that's wrapped up in the free gift of salvation.

It's been my experience and that of hundreds of people I've talked with during my years in ministry that trying to hide your sins, ignoring your sins, or thinking sin is no big deal will make you miserable. You'll be smothered by the presence of sin and there is nothing you can do about it.

Except to turn to God believing that Jesus is his son and what Jesus did on the cross is the only remedy for your sin problem. Confess Jesus as your Savior and Lord, and commit to follow Jesus for the rest of your life.

Stop hiding your sins. God knows about them anyway. And he loves you anyway.