The Problem With Pain....and Stupidity

I STAND by my statement: Bad things happen when men are left alone! I believe that if you went back through history and looked at every major disaster you would likely find—prior to that disaster—a man who's wife had just told him, "I'm going to be gone for a few days, don't screw anything up."

Trish had some meetings in Indianapolis and had to leave us for a couple days. Within an hour of her leaving, I decided it was time I did something with all the produce people have been giving us from their gardens. It's one of the big pluses to being a preacher in a small town—people just give you stuff out of their gardens! My wife is always telling me she us to start a garden of our own and I always say, "What's the point? People will give us food anyway!"

We love salsa and nothing's better than making it fresh, so I got to work cutting up tomatoes, bell peppers, and onions. Then I remembered that someone gave us some jalapeños. I grabbed the peppers, grabbed the knife, finely chopped them and added them to the mix. I put the bowl in the refrigerator to let the salsa work its magic (after a quick sample or two).

About fifteen minutes later I began to notice that my lips were on fire (things like that don't get by me too often). Slowly, little white blisters began to form and it became more and more difficult to not sound like Daffy Duck. Apparently I had rubbed my nose too because it was starting to sting. I went to the bathroom and quickly washed off only to discover that water actually seemed to activate the pepper oils and made them worse. I went into the kitchen and shot myself in the face with the sink sprayer (another thing that I'm not allowed to play with if my wife's not home). That's when I realized that sooner or later I would have to take my contacts out and that would require me touching my eyes. Not good. Not good at all.

I headed back to the computer and quickly pulled up Google. Google's got to be helpful, right? I typed my search carefully, "removing pepper oil hands." Nothing. "Pepper burns skin remedies." Nothing "YEEEOOOOWWWCH!!!!" Well, that one was interesting, but it had little to do with the need at hand.

By the way, do you know how many theories there are about how to get pepper oil off your hands? I've counted at least 5. There's the "wash your hands in vinegar" theory, the "wash your hands in bleach" theory. Keep in mind, though that vinegar and bleach don't react well to each other so you really shouldn't wash in BOTH at the same time. Then there's the "wash your hands until the skin peels off" theory and a few others involving milk and vegetable oil. Oh, and finally there's the advice of, "You should have worn gloves." Thanks...that's very helpful...now.

Oh, and one remedy said, "Rub a stainless steel spoon between your hands under running water." I believe this only works under the light of a full moon The fact was, the mistake had been made and it was now time for me to live with the consequences. Next time I would know better, but for now I had to deal with the pain of the present and the penalty of my stupidity.

But we all do, don't we? Whether it's a misspoken word or a big misstep of our actions, we realize the error of our ways just in time to also realize there's nothing we can do about it. Feelings are hurt, lives are changed in drastic ways and integrity (and maybe more) is lost. All we are left with is the sting of guilt that won't go away.

They burn us. They blister our souls. Our mistakes can affect everything we touch and set other lives on fire in an uncontrollable blaze.

But this is exactly where God has provided us with an incredible gift. All the way back in Isaiah 1:18 he promises us, "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool." He cannot reverse time for us and change the things that we have done, but he has wonderfully promised to take the sting away.

You may have done something yesterday that will drastically change your tomorrow, but you don't have to be a victim of your yesterdays. The guilt that stings and seems to affect everything you touch can only be washed away by one source, and it's not just a theory, it's not even advice about what you "should have done." It is the blood of Jesus Christ that washes away your sins and mistakes. And it always works.