Rogue State of Heart

Posts Tagged ‘inner life’

When I hear of people claiming to be followers of Christ whom I respect admitting to extramarital affairs, I get a very stirred-up reaction. Actually, it’s a variety of emotions—sadness, disappointment, anger, and more. And with this particular episode of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, all of those came in spades.

I was immensely let down by a man whom I knew very little but respected from articles that I read about him turning out to be such a disappointment in some extremely important areas of his life.

I felt strongly for the state of his heart—what is the condition of his soul that would encourage him to repeatedly make destructive and hurtful choices over and over again?

I was angry that he’d break his vows, and put his wife through a tremendously public humiliation—and his sons through a bewildering series of painful life situations.

But I also felt something else: a very humbling sense of kinship.

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Ever realize the things you do that don’t bother you in the least but leave others gagging for air? 

AP (May 11) - A fridge full of rotting food stank so badly that it sent seven workers to hospital - and sparked fears of a full-scale chemical attack. 

 

Hundreds of staff were evacuated from the AT&T office building in San Jose, California after the noxious odors caused people to vomit. 

 

The source of the toxic fumes was soon tracked down to several long-forgotten lunches left in a fridge on the second floor, with the foul smells wafting out when a well-intentioned cleaning lady set about the appliance with bleach.

 

Workers began vomiting as the smell of decomposing food blended with vapors from the chemicals and spread from cubicle to cubicle.

 

Meanwhile, the woman cleaning the fridge, who recently had surgery for a nasal allergy, was oblivious.

 

“She said she couldn’t smell a thing,” said Captain Barry Stallard, San Jose FD.

This was too good of a story to pass up. Since I wasn’t one of the hospitalized victims, I got a good chuckle out of it. Imagine that—doing something you find innocuous that sends other reeling.

As I reflected on that story, I found myself admitting that I do the same thing to others around me, especially close loved ones. Being selfish when I’m not aware of it, being critical enough for someone else to be hurt, being a jerk in an attempt to be witty or funny. Yes, my ability to offend knows no bounds.

The other message in this story: cleaning out the fridge is not fun—nor is cleaning out the heart. Trying to bring sense, order, and even freshness to a place that can hold the skankiest of toxins is just not a fun job. In fact, it can put a scare into us.

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