Everyday life lessons...

Altotonga, Mexico -- Dear friends, I am writing to you with icky fingernails. Why? Because of an adventure... :)

Two days ago, I went down to the Club to put together some stretching bars for the dance class that is going to start on Saturday. It was an adventure just getting the pieces of pipe.. two long almost 9 feet pieces, walking through town. Some of them I had to get threads made on... Some sautered together (or however you spell that).

I finally got all the pieces, and with the help of my lovely roommate (who is so happy because of all the adventures I drag her into ;)). We finally got it together and left with very greasy hands.

Yesterday, I went down to paint them. Everything was going wonderful. I hadn't made any messes and there was more paint on the bars than on me. I was getting ready to clean the brush as I was comtemplating the sense of independence that I felt for having accomplished all this-- venturing into the world of the hardware store and other manly stores... in another language-- when I grabbed the paint thinner and headed downstairs to clean up.

Well,I poured what I thought was the paint thinner over the paint brush and started rubbing. My hands got blacker and blacker and sticky and the paint was only going all over the sink. I then realized that what I thought was the bottle of paint thinner was just water. I panicked, because now my hands were very very black and no matter how much water I used, the paint wasn't going anywhere!I went back upstairs in search of the real stuff, and found the very clearly marked bottle-- "thinner." (sigh)

So, I got a good portion off my fingers with the paint thinner and cloth.. and eventually got the paint brush cleaned. It was just that my hands.. in all the creases and knuckles and those parts were all black and gray. I scrubbed and scrubbed and got the majority of it off. So much for not making a mess.

It took me longer to get the mess cleaned up than it took me to set up and paint. By the way, did you guys know that paint thinner will melt plastic cups? Interesting!

So, while I was being infumigated by the odors of paint thinner and trying to return everything to the clean state it had been in, I began thinking about the effects of sin on our lives. As I started getting paint on my hands and continued rubbing it around, I laughed about a joke I remembered a friend making--that she was going to inject me with ink so that I would be a little darker. I remembered that as my fingers were turning black.

But as the black paint started to take over and get sticky, I started to panic. Isn't it a little like sin? We may think it's fun(ny) at the beginning, and then we realize that we can't control the spreading of the sin and its stickiness. No matter what we do, we just make more and more of a mess of things.Until we bring out the Word of God... the paint thinner of our lives. It cleanes and dissolves that black gunky mess that we've made and brings peace. It has an airy feeling pouring over the hands, and sometimes it's a little tough to scrub with or when it gets into cuts, but nonetheless, it cleans up the mess. That is, if we choose to apply it. So, if you've made a mess, bring out the paint thinner-- the Word of God Himself. And apply it to your life and bring yourself closer to God.

I don't know how I manage to get myself into such adventures. But it's fun.Well, my friends, I continue working with the leadership of the college age group-- forming and developing the leadership so that we can go somewhere!

Other than that, as I mentioned the dance class starts this Saturday. I believe we're going to have a good turnout. We'll see how these things go.I am trying to get a video put together this week to be able to post. It would be easier to do if I could post it in my house (through internet in my house) but we're still waiting on the phone company to come put the line in. Who knows when they'll arrive. :)Have a great afternoon my friends, I need to run! (By the way, toothpaste also helps to get oil paint off your hands-- don't ask)