BY DOUG KASHOREK

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10.

We want everything in our lives to be quick and easy. We’ve got TurboTax and Lunchables. How can we cut down the amount of time we might have to wait in a drive-thru line at an already fast food place?

A Calvin & Hobbes cartoon shows him looking at the box of a microwavable meal and exclaiming, “Six minutes! Who has that kind of time?” Or my favorite sign—tattoos while you wait.

So it is that we want our relationship with God ‘in a hot minute’ as if the eternal Father can be hurried or made to work with our schedules. This isn’t just about the length of services or the preacher’s sermon; it’s about how we want forgiveness for our sins so we can go to heaven.

When David was made aware of his sin with Bathsheba, he immediately found forgiveness, yet he was told that his child would die. Perhaps it was the long-term consequences of his sin that prompted the man after God’s heart to repent in the way he did in this psalm.

Forgiveness too cheaply won leads to a worldly sorrow and a repeat of same behaviors. God helps us to develop godly sorrow that will lead us to eternal life.

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