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.