As you know, I video and edit a lot of my outings with my grandchildren, which means I get to live, and re-live our fishing, kayaking, laughing and conversations over, and over, and over again. Sometimes I teach them, sometimes I correct them, sometimes I pick at them and goof around with them. I am glad to say (by the grace of God) that even in the serious times I am not a bully or brutish or insensitive or unkind, (thank you Jesus).
I have taken hours and hours of videos, without me even thinking about the camera. I don't publish everything. But it is not because I hide my relationship or my demeanor. It is because so much of it is repetitive scenes of things like casting a net or casting a hook-n-line. As I edit for publishing I am glad for the grace of God that guides and enables me to be consistent in my Christian life.
However, I do edit out (cut out, remove) scenes that don't tell the story I want to tell. In other words, I edit out the many times that the net comes back without bait, and the many times that bait comes back without fish (which is most of the time).
At the end of the day, don't have regrets or wish that you could edit out scenes from your life that reveal a different person than the one you profess to be. YES, GOD DOES EDIT OUT OUR SINS, provided we confess our sins and confess Christ as our Savior, turn from our sins, and trust Christ to save (rescue, deliver) us from our sins. But I am talking about a secret life of darkness that is different from our public life "as a believer." The secret life of unkindness, anger, lust, greed, deception, jealousy, envy, selfishness. Either those scenes are confessed and abandoned by faith in Christ or they follow us into eternity.
Faith does not presume on the grace and mercy of God, and presumption does not save from sin in this world, or judgment in the next world. YES, God does provide grace for those who fail at some point in their walk with God (provided they humble themselves and call again on God), but God does not provide saving grace for those who walk in the flesh.
The highlights of our lives may be a small part of the whole story, but the "cutting room floor" should not be filled with the secret, dark, unguarded moments that reveal the "real" person of the heart to be a counterfeit Christian.
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