Category Archives: Sin

Mopping Up

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MBDGOWI EC006Rhett Butler was never without a handkerchief when Scarlett needed one, because he was a classy guy. Having a ready hankie was the mark of a true gentleman.

Nate was a gentleman, too.

I can’t count the times I needed his hankie-help when we were away from home. Coffee spills, make-up gone awry, tears at a funeral, or sticky fingers. His hankie was usually out of his suit pocket before I’d looked up from my sudden need, and he never gave a thought to the fact that he might want to use it later and find it soiled by his wife.

I can remember watching my mother put a handkerchief in her purse each time she went out, noticing that my father had one, too. People of that generation didn’t use Kleenex with abandon like I do. They were “thinking green” well before it was the thing to do.

I also recall shopping with Mom to buy a bridal shower gift. She selected a handkerchief made of gauzy white linen fanned out in a square flat box and wrapped in tissue. The embroidered pink roses on one corner were matched by a pink edging all around. As a young girl I knew the bride would love it and wondered if she might even carry it on her wedding day.

I can see how hankies are wonderful for mopping up moisture — from eyes, noses, clothes, children’s faces, and other places. Although I don’t own a hankie, I was delighted to be married to a handkerchief-carrying gentleman. I needed him, and I needed his hankies. Both helped me clean up many a mess.

Sometimes I think about the Lord and his expertise at cleaning up after us. Throughout the Bible he mopped up a variety of disasters, and he’s in the same business today, offering his services to those of us who keep messing up. And the best part about his cleaning is that it isn’t just surface work. What he offers goes deep into the heart and fixes what can’t be touched with a hankie but is far more difficult to clean. It’s the buried soil of sin.

The beauty of God’s mess-mopping is that once things have been cleaned up, he’s willing to let the past stay in the past. Although I don’t think God actually forgets anything, he does promise not to keep bringing up the messes we’ve made. They’re as good as forgotten.

Nate's hankiesI still remember quite a few of the wet clean-ups Nate’s hankies helped me with, and many of the handkerchiefs show stains testifying to this. Actually, now that I think about it, Nate never brought these things up to me again either. Like Rhett Butler, he was just happy he could help.

“Come now, let’s settle this,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow.” (Isaiah 1:18)

Praising and Praying with Mary

  1. I’m thankful I was able to eat some dinner tonight.
  2. I’m also thankful for how “normal” (and good) I felt being able to clean our condo tonight.

Taking What Comes

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Tonight I’m munching on brightly colored gumballs, thinking of an incident that happened 36 years ago. Whenever we’d shop at the local grocery, the three kids we had at the time tried to behave well, knowing that if they did, there was a treat after check-out. A clear glass machine of mouth-watering gumballs stood near the exit, and if we got that far tantrum-free, it was gumballs all around.

GumballsNelson always led the way with his dime. Before dropping it in, he’d tell the machine what color gumball he wanted. “A red one,” he’d say, in a demanding tone. Inevitably it was a different color, and though he’d made it through the store without a tantrum, it usually happened then.

“I said RED!” he’d holler, throwing his gumball and occasionally kicking the machine. The next time we’d approach the same machine, Nelson was sure this time his command would be obeyed, though mostly it wasn’t.

Eventually he decided to let Lars, two years younger, have the first turn. Stepping into his older brother’s shoes, little Lars put in his money and said, “I want green!” When a white one came out, he started to whimper. But his big brother had learned by painful experience and dished out some good advice: “Larsy, you have to take what the gumball machine gives you.”

This incident became part of our family folk lore. Nate told the story often, and whenever life took a negative turn, he’d quote Nelson. “This isn’t the greatest situation in the world, but we have to take what the gumball machine gives us.” He even made that statement once in reference to his pancreatic cancer.

And that’s the thing about life. Much of it is handed to us without our permission and is contrary to our wishes. Just as Nelson wanted a red gumball, we want unblemished health, a secure fortune, contented relationships, and personal freedom. Inevitably one (and sometimes all) of those categories become “discolored.”

Nelson once suggested we find a gumball machine with only red ones in it so his dime would produce what he wanted every time. Interestingly, our lives would be devoid of growth if the experiences coming to us were all the same hue. It’s by way of receiving the “wrong colors” that we make colorful progress.

The reality of the situation is that God does have control of what comes to us, whether it’s a certain gumball or a life experience, and he wants us to learn that every “color” has significant flavor. But be prepared for anything, because once in a while, just for the joy of it, he’ll send a “red gumball.”

“Taste and see that the Lord is good.” (Psalm 34:8)

Praising and Praying with Mary:

  1. Thanks for continued prayer about the feeding tube, which is infected at the skin and just under it, requiring antibiotics.
  2. Pray against needing IV antibiotics if the oral doesn’t help.
  3. Praise God there are things to do to address the tube pain.
  4. And I’m thankful it gives me 900 calories each night as I sleep.

Like it or lick it.

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A bad habitToday I did something I said I’d never do again, but an old habit got in the way of my new resolve. I picked up a packet… no… a box-full of hard-copy photos from the store. I’m embarrassed to say I now have 307 new prints to put into albums.

An old Chinese proverb says, “Habits are cobwebs at first, cables at last.” As the wildlife in our basement enjoys cob-webbing our 196 photo albums, I’m upstairs shackling myself with a cable wrapped around me 307 times. Now I have the undertaking of putting these prints in books I haven’t even bought yet. Worse yet, it’ll put us over the 200-album mark, a dubious honor.

What could possibly be the reason for such idiocy? I do have one. It’s the tiny but potent memory card inside my digital camera. Because I can delete any photo, I take pix with abandon, which is what brought me up against three maxed-out cards that needed clearing. The thought of losing even one good shot nagged me until I finally decided to make 4×6 copies to have and to hold… as is my habit.

My kids have pressed me to give up hard copies entirely, and I promised I would… next time. For now I can’t ignore the cry of my basement albums: “You’ve loved us for so long! Don’t stop now!”

Is photo hoarding a bad habit? Or is it a harmless pastime?

Are there any harmless bad habits?

My 307 pictures got me thinking. How many other bad habits do I have that haven’t been classified as such? What behaviors more serious than album-collecting ought to be stopped? Every bad habit has something tantalizing within it. We can’t lick it because we like it. It feeds us somehow, gratifies something, gives back in some way. If it didn’t, we’d walk away.

Experts tell us the best way to get rid of an undesirable habit is to substitute a desirable one. But since there’s already something desirable nestled within every bad habit, finding an even more desirable substitute can be problematic. It’s one of life’s big challenges.

YumIf I could figure out how to conquer my album-addiction, maybe I could triumph over other bad habits, say, my love affair with sugar. How could there ever be anything more desirable than sugar? For now, I’m just trying to think of something better than stockpiling photos in the basement. After watching Louisa reorganize her computer pictures for several hours, keeping electronic  albums doesn’t have much appeal either.

After all, dusting the cobwebs off my basement albums could be done in three minutes flat. If I’m munching on candy while doing it, two.

”For as he thinks within himself, so he is.” (Proverbs 23:7a)

Praising and Praying with Mary

  1. Thanks so much for continuing to pray about my feeding tube pain and the the appointment with a GI doctor.
  2. I’m thankful the tube itself continues to feed me well.