pandora's box
Posted by Bryan
Kyle asks the dangerous question, "What's the stupidest thing you've ever done?"
I have to commend him, his stupidity was really pretty impressive.
My list is long and sundry. And then, of course, there's the whole "ha ha funny" stupid list and the "what in the world were you thinking you should praise God for grace and mercy" stupid list.
My list of stupid includes:
- Jumping from the 40 foot train bridge into 8 foot-deep river water as coal train approaches.
- Hiding from the police for breaking curfew by leaning against a brick wall and hoping they wouldn't see me. They did
- Telling my cousin that cats always land on their feet, then gently lofting my cat into the air to prove the point. Impressed, he picked up Mr. Whiskers and spiked him back to the earth to test the theory himself. Mr. Whiskers disproved the theory.
- Convincing a friend to call a 1-900 number on the school telephone (back in the late 80s), that he'd never get caught. He left the phone off the hook, accruing a several hundred dollar phone bill. And he got caught.
- Swiping Halloween candy from a little kid when I was in 7th grade. The little kid went and told his dad, and dad found me and my buddies about an hour later, and convinced us that our chocolate-filled tummies were about to be ripped out in vengeance.
- picking four fights in one night in college
- Assuming that my church congregation universally respected my seminary degree and was eager to receive and follow the leadership provided by an innovative young man called by God to challenge and grow the flock.
- Determining that if I handle a conflict biblically, then both sides will recognize God's blessing and respond accordingly.
- Thinking that challenges in life will certainly get easier because previous tests seemed to be so monumental.
Mind you, this list is not exhaustive...it is merely the taproot to a whole tree of stupid that I tried to climb, only to discover that I was too big for its upmost branches, and ended up falling off, and then having it topple over, nearly crushing me in the process.
I implore you, from what I have learned, glean and benefit.
November 14, 2003 11:01 AM