Well, today was the day of getting back into the routine and rushing from one appointment to another. When playing catchup from this past week, I always try to cram too much into the schedule in order to not miss anything important. Despite my genuine love of food, lunchtimes can often be more of a hassle than they are worth. Most of the time I genuinely don’t enjoy the food because I am in a hurry and the anxiety of trying cram one more thing in increases the day’s stress.
Today, lunch was more than just a hassle. It was embarrassing. You would think after 69 years and literally decades behind the wheel with some years over 60,000+ miles I would learn NOT to eat while driving. Today was especially crunched so it had to be drive through – Arby’s, that’s it. It’s not messy at all. Well, you know what “assuming” does! Before I got to my client’s office I had both bar-b-que sauce and greasy mayonnaise stains in the most visible portion of my tan pants. Even if I had tried to wash it out, that would have looked worse than my obvious “eating issue.” The phrase “I can’t take you anywhere” immediately came to mind.
Over the years, if I was able to recount them, the list would make you wonder if I would ever learn. Yet, I know each of us has those “egg on your face” situations that were embarrassing. Later they cause you to smile at yourself. I often wonder if God doesn’t smile at us and shake His head sometimes at the way we get in a hurry because we think we can control our lives, manipulate circumstances, effectively multitask and become more effective than is reasonably possible. You and I both know better. So the question I pose today is: “Aren’t we all messy people?”
I think you know the answer to that, but some of us do not always see our own messiness. Others of us leave the messiness behind us rather than on our pants. And yet others cause messiness because people know they are coming and initiate anxiety with that knowledge. Certain of us think we are great multitaskers when juggling various tasks, yet never really finish anything leaving messes for others. Nearly all of us find ourselves at times either overestimating our abilities or underestimating the cost or resources necessary to do what we think we have the capacity to do.
Embarrassing moments inherently cause messes that need to be cleaned up!
I know you are thinking” “I can tell you one better than bar-b-que pants,” well so could I. After all a little transparency is enough, isn’t it? The good thing is that you have to learn to smile and shake your head at yourself the way God does when He sees you doing childish, silly and even dumb things. While sin is not silly and certainly not healthy, fruitful or positive, you must see your mistakes, faux pas’ and downright stupidity or stubbornness and smile AFTER the embarrassment. Paul really makes a good point in Romans 6:1 and then again in verse 15 when he asks, “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?” The answer is obviously NO as we see in verses 2 – 14.
You cannot take your sin lightly – otherwise it will master you. However, the entity of sin is always active and at work trying to condemn you for being a sucker to the easy way out or your attempt to beat the odds at times. You cannot let that mentality beat you any more than you can allow messy, embarrassing circumstances to beat you. Learn from them. Smile at yourself – heck, make fun of yourself and do not take yourself so seriously that God has to say “Get a life.”
You are, like all of us, a messy person. You make messes and you embarrass yourself. Find the silver lining by knowing that each mess you clean up is one less in the future.
Love Dad