Dodging the E-Word. Again.
I’m here today with a pair of public service announcements:
First: Never, ever, tie a knot in the belt of your bathrobe. Do the once-over as if you’re about to tie your shoelaces, sure. But don’t cinch it down into a knot.
One morning decades ago, my mother’s cousin stood at the stove cooking eggs when the sleeve of her robe grazed a gas flame. The robe erupted in flame, and she couldn’t untie the knot to remove it.
Sure. We all know one should stop, drop, and roll if one’s clothing catches fire. But in the panic of the moment, she did not remember. Maybe they didn’t even teach that technique, way back then.
She suffered horrible burns, and her life was never the same. A generation later, my cousin, who had certainly been taught to stop, drop, and roll, dragged her robe sleeve through the flame. With the same panic. And the same results.
If their robes had not been knotted, they could have slipped free when they tried to remove them, minimizing their injuries.
Second: Save yourself the overstuffed refrigerator this Thanksgiving. Order a fresh turkey! Instead of making room in the fridge for twenty pounds of frozen poultry flesh to thaw, drip-drip-dripping for days, you can pick up your fresh bird at the butcher’s the night before the feast. Easy peasy.
You’re welcome.
I like to share. I’m not shy about cautioning my friends, sharing my experience to spare someone else pain. And I’m thrilled to pass on tips that make our lives better, eager to help others benefit from what I’ve learned.
So why is it that I’m so hesitant, so tongue-tied to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Nothing else I know enriches our lives like a saving knowledge in Him. Nothing else will spare us the eternal pain of a life separated from our God. It’s more important than avoiding burns in a household accident. It improves your life far, far more than any holiday cooking tip.
But still I am reluctant.
Even though He told us to.
And really, isn’t reluctant a less pointy word for refusing?
All of which I share because I’d like you to read my friend Michelle DeRusha’s amazing post about her son’s awkwardly-timed announcement that he was becoming a vegetarian. She found something in that moment that convicted me. So won’t you head on over and read what she has to say? I’ll wait here.
Now then. I’m getting ready to do my best to peel off some plastic. You too?
18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:18-20 (NASB)
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