Not another one!

    A few months ago, I wrote on the falls in my life for almost three weeks. I really was concerned that I would have a great fall during those times to be my grand finale for that series. I did not fall though and was relieved. I wrote about 20 falls. Well, hold on . . . now I can share with you number twenty-one! It was a great weekend. Bryce and Kristen came into town and Brittne and Kristen were spending Saturday morning together. I was going to meet up with them for lunch at 11:30. On my way, Brittne called and said they were going to be late. I decided that I had time to get gas and wash my car that I had been teased about for being so dirty. I went through a automatic car wash next to the manual bays. It was an automatic bay with open ends. The inside of my car needed to be cleaned as well as the outside. I had a dry rag in the car and I had a great idea (so I thought). I threw my dry rag in the bay behind the sprayers before the wash began. I thought this would allow me to get my rag wet and then when the car wash was done, my rag would be wet and I could retrieve it and wash the inside of my car. The plan worked perfectly up to the retrieving part. When the wash was over, I pulled out of the bay and went in to get my rag. I was hurrying and when my flip flopped feet hit the wet, moldy, mossy cement; my body went crashing into the cement floor, cinder block walls, and big metal sprayer. The instant thought in my mind was, “I am too old for these kinds of falls, and it is not going to be pretty!” Humility inspired me up on my feet though I was dripping with water and mold. I immediately looked around to see if there was an audience to my performance. Nobody was present though a car had just pulled up to the purchase screen for the automatic car wash. I made it back to my car and wanted to sit there and cry for a while but I had to get my car moved for the person behind me. I pulled forward and used my rag on myself. I had to wash off the mold and dirt off my hands, arms, and legs. Though my complete body hurt, my hand dominated in the pain level; the area under my pinkie to my wrist, swelled up with bluish tones and pounded out the beat of my heart. I pulled it together enough to drive to lunch and by the time lunch was over, I thought I would live. When I got home I shared with Bryce and Dwayne my new episode of clumsiness and proceeded to get my lecture of how you NEVER go into an automatic car wash. I don’t want to underestimate the hand of God in his creation of me, but I did not get as much logic as I think others got! I worked in the garage with the boys trying to get it in order and when I was done I went into Brittne’s room to check on her. As I was sitting on her bed, I decided to scope out the damage to my body and look for bruises. I picked up my pant leg and went into a panic of shock! I had never seen anything look like my knee did. I could feel the uncontrolled swelling taking place but since it looked so weird, Brittne and I were cracking up. We called Bryce in to look at his mother’s injury. I thought I would win some toughness points for having had worked in the heat with a deformed knee but he did not think it was funny and immediately made me get on the couch and put my knee up so he could wrap my knee in ice. I hate ice! He made me do what I hated to do in order to stop things from getting worse.

     There are two spiritual applications that can be made with this story. First, there are many times we do not see the consequences of our spiritual falls, our sin, until a certain point down the road. The consequences can shock us because we may have thought we got by without having to pay a big price. We must remember that we never ‘get by’ God. He sees everything and we will always pay the price for our bad decisions! There is no hiding from the One who sees everything! The other lesson is that it sometimes takes someone else to see the severity of the situation. We can be laughing and seeing the fun in our behavior and God can send another person to show us that the ‘fun’ can explode on you and you will end up with a serious situation.
     Are there sins in your life that you have thought you got by God? Or are you now reaping the consequences of past sin? Are there sins in your life that you are enjoying and think are fun? The ‘fun’ of those sins will pass and you will end up with serious consequences if you do not repent and change. Has God sent someone in your life to help you see the real situation you are facing? Are they willing to help you make things better? Are you listening?

This is no light matter. God has warned us that he’ll hold us to account and make us pay.
He was quite explicit: "Vengeance is mine, and I won’t overlook a thing,” and,
 “God will judge his people.” Nobody’s getting by with anything, believe me.

Hebrews 10:30-31