A Bunch of Junk

Whenever I check mail on any of my 3 e-mail accounts, I always have tons of junk mail. I would say about ninety percent of the mail I get is spam. I suppose it even goes beyond my e-mails to the junk I get through snail mail (especially the credit card companies . . . no thanks). Honestly, I become so irritated sometimes because I check my e-mail at night, and when I wake up the next morning I have 30 junk e-mails. Every so often, I wonder how these people received my e-mail address. But tonight, as I was checking my mail, I deleted my junk mail and I wondered not only how they got there, but I also wondered why I am so quick to check the box and delete them.

My point is not that junk mail contains important information and you should take the time to read them all, but they are like every other problem in life. When you have a problem, do you always think it is someone else's fault? Is it always some snoop at some scamming company hunting down your e-mail address to send you junk? Or did you fall for a trick and apply for some "free" product that was actually a scam, and therefore you gave them your e-mail on a platter, and now they're sending you junk?

Obviously there are problems that are created by other people, but what about the problems you create yourself? Do you learn from your mistakes, or do the problems and e-mails keep building up so that you're deleting 30 or 40 of them at a time? That is so stressful and time consuming! Sometimes we just need to be more careful. We have to learn to protect ourselves . . . not overprotect ourselves . . . but be cautious. When you really don't find that a friend is reliable . . . ever, don't keep going back to them or they will continuously hurt you. God does want us to forgive others, but I do not believe that He wants us to repeatedly put our emotions on the line. I'm not saying to be unkind to those “repeat offenders,” but you should not allow yourself to be too close to them, or else you make yourself extremely vulnerable.

Also, why are we so quick to delete the junk mail? Why do we spend 2 minutes checking the box and clicking delete instead of a few more minutes to unsubscribe to the e-mails and rid ourselves of the problem altogether? Why do we shrug off the problems, or quickly forgive instead of trying to understand the problem and really fix it? Maybe, before you distance yourself from your unreliable friend, you should try having a real conversation with them and try to understand what it is that makes them act the way they do. Maybe they need help and prayer. Or they could be unaware of what they are doing and your feelings just need to be brought to their attention.

There are some people that will never change, just like there are some companies that don't seem to receive your unsubscribe request. They may need a more stern reply, or they may just need to be continuously forgiven and deleted. But it is so much better to have just a few problems instead of 30.




"Forgive and act; deal with each man according to all he does, since you know his heart (for you alone know the hearts of all men)..."
1 Kings 8:39

"Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times."
Matthew 18:21-22