Barneyisfat

I have a story I would like to comment on. My sister's bofriend, Mike, recently made a mistake.

Mike works at a small fire department as a volunteer. The truck hadn't been re-fueled since the last fire so Mike took it to get re-fueled. Mike opened the door and backed up. The door, however, had been broken for more than a year and sometimes didn't go up right. Mike hit the door pretty hard and did some damage. Mike put the door down and went and told the other firefighters. They came and tried to put the door back up, but it wouldn't budge. They realized that if there was a fire they would have to use the other truck - the one that no one had got around to fixing yet. So that night the firement fixed it in case there was a call.

Because of Mike's mistake - insurance will cover replacing the broken door, the door will no longer be broken, the fire truck that they had "been fixing" for weeks was now operational.

We will all probably make a lot of mistakes. But, aim for the ones like this. If you are going to make a mistake let it be one that will have positive ramifications. Laziness, apathy, and ignorance have no positive side effects. They kill you slowly. When, however, you ram a truck into a door there are immediate side effects. Some of them negative. There is guilt, anger, and frustration on Mike's part right now ... but there are also positives.

I read recentl a book by Jim Bakker, famed televangelist who had an affair and then was arrested for embezzlement, about the mistakes in his life. A recurring theme in the book was that if he had waited patiently instead of rushing into things he woulnd't have gone to jail. He failed to realize that everything he was jailed for happened long after his affair. He would have gotten away scotch free if his embezzlement wouldn't have got in the way.

Our mistakes hurt. Sin hurts. May it be our prayer than when we mess up there are positive side effects to the problem. May we see Christ's perfect resolution in all of our screw ups.