Have you ever put yourself in a sticky situation or gotten into a tangled mess? I do from time to time. Recently Aaron and I were “Super Gluing” a plastic part on the oven. It made me think back to my first job a Keystone Metal Moulding in Clanton after graduating from high school.
There was this guy named Jerry that liked to pull pranks on
young, naïve, and unsuspecting new hires.
I had never heard of “Super Glue.”
Keystone used this new glue to adhere vinyl to anodized aluminum. Jerry told me to hold out my finger to which
he placed a drop of this glue. He
proceeded to tell me to hold my finger to my thumb. Well, dummy me did as I was told. Jerry the jokester laughed when he told me to
try to open my finger and thumb. I could not.
Most of Jerry’s victims panicked and ripped their fingers into the
quick. I felt foolish, but did not
panic. I spent several minutes with my
finger and thumb soaking in acetone before the Super Glue dissolved.
I told Aaron the story giving a few minutes for the plastic
oven part to dry. Guess what? I could not put the plastic part down. I had glued my thumb and finger to the
plastic part. Having been down that
idiotic path before, I sent Aaron, who was laughing, to the bathroom to
retrieve some fingernail polish remover, which contains acetone. After a few minutes of slowing massaging the fingernail
polish remover between my fingers and Aaron slowly cutting the glue, I was
released from my own entanglement.
Speaking of tangles, I am always amazed how electrical cords
can become so tangled. After undoing a
tangled extension cord, I stepped to start the process of rolling up the cord
and tripped over the extension cord. I
had wrapped the cord around my feet. I
don’t think I could have done better it I had tried. I laughed because that was not my first time
to tie my feet together by accident. I
had our two dogs, Rockco, Australian Cattle Dog, and Loki, half German Shepherd and half Great
Pyrenees, on leashes and in their excitement to spend time with their master
they tied me up. We looked like casting
rod line all jumbled together.
One Sunday several years ago I was visiting Calvary Baptist
Church. Pastor Irby had a great sermon
on drug and alcohol addiction. One of
the verses he used was from Proverbs about being caught in our own traps or
snares. I immediately thought of an
incident at
While pastor there, I received a frantic call from the
church pianist, Janelle Baker. Bill, her
husband and music director, was gone and she had a critical situation. Aaron and I jumped into the truck and went to
her rescue.
When we arrived, it was ugly what we found. Bill and Janelle’s favorite beagle, Tuffy,
was in a mess. Bill’s rod and reel stood
against the garage wall. Tuffy, for some
odd reason must have thought she was a fish, a hairy bass and decided to catch
the fishing lure tangling from the rod.
The light brown beagle was red with blood from its mouth and all four
paws. Tuffy, other than covered with
blood, appeared to be praying with her front paws attached to her mouth. It was bad, but cute.
The best we could decipher was that the beagle got one of
the treble hooks in its mouth. When she
tried to get it out with its paw, it got hooked. She repeated the process with all her
paws. I did not know what to do as the Tuffy
whined and whimpered. I had caught a
many of catfish, but it was my first “dogfish.”
I asked Janelle if Bill had a pair of wire cutters or
pliers. She did not know, so I sent
Aaron back to the Pastorium to get my tool bag.
When he returned, Janelle and I had calmed Tuffy somewhat, I preformed
emergency surgery as Janelle and Aaron held Tuffy.
One by one, I cut the barbs off the treble hooks. Aaron and I giggled. It reminded us of the time I cut a hook from
his nose. Jamie, his cousin, hooked
Aaron in the nose as she cast her red worm baited hook while bass fishing. Aaron had to stand still with a red worm
wiggling against his nose as I cut the barb from the hook. That experience enabled me to cut the eight
barbs from Tuffy only she was not as obedient as Aaron was.
The episode with Super Glue, electrical extension cords, dog
leashes, and Tuffy reminds me of our lives and sin. For some odd reason of humanity, we get
tangled with the snares of sin. When we
try to free ourselves, we are glued, tangled, roped, and hooked even more.
When death and the grave had entangled our Lord, the power
of the Resurrection released Him from death and the grave. That power is the power that frees us. Like Tuffy, the harder we try to free
ourselves, the more tangled we become.
This is how the God’s Word version of the Bible translates
Proverbs 5:22, Irby’s text on “Snares of the Enemy,” A wicked person will be trapped by his own wrongs and he will be caught
in the ropes of his own sin.
He (Jesus) is not here; he has risen, just as he said.
Come and see the place where he lay (Matthew 28:6 KJV).
I am glad no one saw Rockco, Loki, and me entangled.
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