Carpet Knife

 

Last Monday, when I returned from Vacation Bible school in West Virginia, Marleen and Brother Carl had pulled out the old carpet squares from the Ladies’ Sunday school classroom.  Well, that’s not completely true.  With the new double doors, the Ladies classroom doubles as part of the church fellowship hall.  And some of the carpet didn’t easily come up leaving carpet stuck around the edges of the room and around the doorjambs.  So, I bought a cheap carpet knife with 10 carpet blades to cut out the remaining carpet.  Did I mention how sharp those carpet knives are?  (refer to the pictures)  As I was putting the blade into the carpet knife, I thought that I would have to caution Marleen about how sharp those things are.  But as I picked up a Crescent wrench and put it into my left hand, the carpet knife just nicked the top of my right index finger.  Blood spurted out and I instantly held the gash together.  I needed help.  So, I called to Marleen in the church kitchen and calmly told her that I needed her help.  When she saw the blood dripping, she went into panic mode.  We wrapped the injured finger in paper towel and made a trip to the E.R.  4 hours later I was back at church with 3 stitches in my finger (and a tetanus shot in my shoulder).  I was humbled.  Marleen didn’t need to be careful with the carpet knife; I did.  Come to think of it, that’s pretty much the definition of a hypocrite!  “Not for me, but for thee.”  Jesus said in Matthew 7:3, "And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?"  Instead of worrying about Marleen, I should have been worrying about myself.

God's Goodness

 

My back hurts.  My shoulders hurt.  The back of my arms hurt.  My thighs hurt.  My stomach muscles hurt.  But strangely, I feel satisfied this morning.  And the reason is that I went caving Saturday.  I took a group of twenty-something young people and spent three hours investigating tunnels, holes, and squeezes.  And the deeper that we went under Sand Mountain, the more philosophical I became.  All of these complicated underground pathways are there to be explored, but most people have no idea that they are there - right under where they live and drive.  I am reminded of the Lord’s goodness that gives us life every day.  God sustains us, but we are mostly unaware of His powerful benevolence.  Lamentations 3:22&23, “It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.”  May we be aware of God’s goodness today, and may we be grateful to Him, is my prayer.

The Past

 

I have been going to cardiac rehab for three years this coming September, and all of those years have been post-covid.  One of the last covid reminders was the “dirty” and the “clean” pencil containers on the counter.  I was pleasantly surprised this past Friday morning to find that the “dirty” and the “clean” containers were gone and a single pencil container was there.  Just pencils.  Nothing to remind me of those terrible covid days.  Hey, I’m still trying to remember to cough into my sleeve and not into my hand, like I learned in Miss Gagean’s class in 1960.  My old, “good habit” was no longer proper in 2020.  My, my, how things have changed.  And the simple pencil container was a back-to-normalcy reminder that brought a smile to my face.  I’m glad to forget covid!  And I’m even more glad to forget my sins.  I’m so glad that Jesus took my sins away, and now I can get on with life in Him.  Oh. I still struggle with sins, but the dear Lord has given me a new purpose and a new life.  I’m glad that the old life is gone!  Micah 7:18&19, “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity? … he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.”  And like those dark covid days, my odious sins are in the past to be remembered no more!