The Ugly Editor

The Ugly Editor

I’d sat in this exact spot before—an old, velvet-covered club chair in a neighborhood coffee shop—and placed my mug more than once on the same table. So I must have seen the box before. But on this day it caught my eye, and as I fingered the tiny latch near the top, I was curious enough to open it.

Inside I found a stash of handwritten notes, some confessional, some philosophical, some hopeful, some sad. It seems I’d been having coffee for some time right next to a kind of rambling, stream of consciousness collective that was surprisingly frank. But here’s the weird thing: an “editor” with a blue pen had seen fit to scratch remarks on every single one. The editorial comments were sarcastic, critical, accusatory, crude, and in a few cases, downright mean.

I tried to picture someone sitting down in the velvet chair and discovering the box in much the same way I had. But I couldn’t fathom a person with enough venom (and time) to hypercritically edit each note. This person must have been having a really bad day, or life, or something. But I recognized the ugly editor’s judging voice; I hear it all the time. It wants me to believe God’s mercy toward me is limited and his love for me is conditional. It argues against grace and questions my every motive.

As I held the scraps of paper in my hands, I found myself wanting to go back over each one with a different color ink and refute everything the ugly editor had penned, replacing it with words Jesus might have said. Like “Go, and sin no more” (John 8:11). And “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5, ESV).

Are you hearing the voice of the ugly editor? Don’t cover your ears. Open them instead to the words of life from the author and perfecter of your faith: “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10, NKJV).

We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true.

1 John 5:19-20, NKJV