Sticky Fingers of Sin

Mary Kay's "Satin Hands"? Forget about it. If you want soft, supple skin, pick up a tube of Crazy Glue. Enclose your fist around it and feel it ooze between the base of your fingers. But quick!, open your hand, before you end up in Emerg. Over the next hour, run your hand under warm tap water, lifting it out occasionally to scrape off the glue with a steak knife. The result is shiny red newness. Soft, if not stiff, finger creases--probably due more to the triple-layer removal of epidermis than the actual hand-softening properties of Crazy Glue.

Oh, and the results take longer than an hour to achieve. That first hour produced some nice glue-free patches, but 24 hours later I'm still picking away at the remnants of my stupidity.

Yeah, not fun. So I mess with the glue, and I wonder why the next days are filled with picking off the unwanted after-effects of my dumb choice to grab it.

Do we spend chunks of our lives scraping away the crap we spill on ourselves? Cleaning up the after-effects of our poor--even sinful--choices?

Trying to win back our husband's trust, after he finds out we've been facebooking an old flame. It was innocent, really.

Wondering how long our dear friend will find excuses for not visiting us, knowing full well she overheard us slam her skills when we were in that circle of gal-pals.

Goodness, it can be as subtle as trying to shed the pounds my cavalier I'm-gonna-eat-ice-cream-anytime-I-feel-like-it attitude piled on last winter.

We choose stupid. Better call it what it is. Sin. And wonder why we face consequences.

How about this? We stop. Think. Imagine the consequences. And ask God to give us the courage to hit "sign out" before we give into the temptation to type that flame's name. Ask Him to be in control of our mouths, and keep them shut when we wanna say something mean. And walk away from that blasted freezer. Or better yet, walk by the freezer in the grocery store.

I'm thankful for a God who forgives the stupid. The sin. That's why He died--even for the seemingly insignificant things. Cuz in my day-to-day life, there are no insignificant choices. Even a tiny Crazy Glue tube can wreak havoc.