4 Lessons Typos Have Taught Me About Grace
By: Dr. Mckay Caston
Tags: Writing, Spirituality, Religion, Grace, Christianity

This is what happened this spring as I read my Passion Week meditations each evening at the dinner table for “family time.” In the middle of the devotion, I would catch a mistake, which would cause me to pause, grimace, and lose my place. Not the spiritually enriching experience for the family I had envisioned.

Then I realized those posts had been published on multiple platforms. Oh, no! Others were grimacing, too. Not because of their mistake, but in judgment of mine. At least it felt that way.

As I scrambled from the dinner table to my basement study, I began to update each post — on Medium, on Wordpress, on my paperback and Kindle versions. It was exhausting.

Yes, typos are like mosquitoes. Always annoying. Usually frustrating. Sometimes, downright infuriating.

This time a silver lining appeared in the clouds in the form of four lessons my typos have been teaching me about grace. I thought I’d share them in hopes that some other writer out there (or anyone else who makes mistakes) might be encouraged and helped. If you can relate, this is for you.

1) I Have Blind Spots.

Sometimes when I’m driving, I’ll ask a passenger if there is anything in my blind spot, the area just behind the car outside the view of the rear or side mirrors. New cars and trucks now come equipped with “blind spot detection,” a little light that illuminates in the side mirror if a vehicle is occupying the driver’s blind spot. Even though my wife’s car has that snazzy tech feature, I don’t trust it. I still have to look for myself just to make sure before changing lanes.

Writers have blind spots, too, which is why even professional writers employ trained editors. For example, I can read over a manuscript ten times and not catch the misspelled or misplaced word. Usually, I already have re-written the piece so many times that scraps of editorial content I intended to cut out get left in. That scrap content becomes blind spot material.

Every writer who is continually producing new material has blind spots, and that’s okay. It is the same reason why professional athletes have coaches. Regardless of how much we practice our craft, we will never reach perfection. We can only pursue improvement and progress. To that end, we need editors, coaches, and friends, which leads to the second lesson.

2) I Need the Insight and Input of Others.

As a writer and as a human being, I need others to help me see my blind spots. Sometimes they are grammatical, but other times they are moral. Not only does a writer need editors, but believers need each other to help us see areas of our lives that need to come under the influence and control of the Holy Spirit. Self-righteous anger. Pride. A spirit of entitlement. Jealousy. Greed. These are just some of the things that hide in dark spaces my mirrors can’t see.

A huge lesson my typos have taught me is not only how critical community is for the Christian, but how vital teachability is for the disciple of Jesus. As a writer, I often will push back against the suggestion of an editor. By nature, I want compliments, not critique and correction. But I will not make progress with the pen until I am willing to confess the limitations of my ability.

That is what disciple means, anyway. He or she is a learner who follows the example and guidance of someone else. Obviously, a Christian is a disciple (a learner-follower) of Christ, the professor in God’s school of grace, where students make it their aim to conform every aspect of their lives to that grace which defines those who follow Jesus as Savior and Lord.

Every disciple is given various talents and abilities with which they are empowered to contribute to the advance of the gospel as members of the Kingdom of God. But these gifts are limited and imperfect. As a result, we need the insight and input of others as we live in community as teachable believers.

3) The Illusion of Perfection is a False Gospel.

When I have used a proofreader, I am stunned by how many typos were still present in a document I assumed was relatively “clean” from errors. Ah, but remember the blind spot. The moment I deny the blind spot is the precipice of authorial stupidity — thinking far too highly of one’s self. And the proverb becomes reality, that pride goes before a fall.

When a typo is revealed in a published work, either a simple blog post or in a full-length book, it tends to have a disproportionate impact on me as a writer. For all the good that is there, one mistake can bring the entire edifice down upon my heart like a house of cards.

Why do I get so panicked to discover a simple mistake?

The answer: I want to be perfect.

I do not want to just be a good writer, but a great writer. The best writer. At this point, if I could accurately analyze my heart, I’d find the idol of self-righteousness functionally defining my identity. I may claim that Jesus is my righteousness with my lips, but my anxiety would reveal where my true hope is being found — in writing perfection, which is the illusion of a false gospel.

4. Jesus Uses My Imperfection to Magnify His Grace.

In 2 Corinthians 12:7b-10, the apostle Paul wrote about his lesson with grace,

In order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Like Paul’s boasting, maybe to keep authors from pursuing “writer righteousness,” the Lord has given us typos. Like mosquitoes for the rest of humanity, we must endure the annoyance, frustration, and infuriation of spelling blunders and grammatical gaffes. But the point is clear enough. Even typos are intended to show us that regardless of how flawed our writing (and our lives), we are those who live by grace through the all-sufficient sacrifice of Jesus, who shed his blood, giving his life as white-out for all our sin.

Receive a Free Gift

Receive the digital version of my short book, The Grade Exchange: An Introduction to the Gospel (with Discussion Guide) as a gift and you also will receive a free subscription to Rest for the Weary.

Get Your Free Copy