What I’m about to tell you rarely happens to my thought, but it happened recently, and I learned a valuable lesson from it. So here goes…
I had a stack of flyers to cut in half. Kathy had a paper cutter stored in her backroom closet that she picked up at a garage sale years ago. It’s not a very good one, a bit dull on the blade, but it seemed the quickest way to get the job done.
As I jaunted down to the closet to retrieve the cutter, I mumbled, “I hope it works better than last time. That dull blade sure can mess up your papers. I bet it’s going to mess up my flyers. I hate that cutter.”
Set-up!! 🙂
I carried the tool back to my office, placed a book under one of the wobbly legs, and proceeded to cut 3 flyers at once. Success! “Oh good, we’re on a roll.”
I put in 5 flyers next time. Disaster!
“Oh geez, that stupid blade did it again,” I thought. It mangled my flyers, wrecking them to smithereens.
I suddenly got really upset. Anger flooded through my thought.
“I knew this cutter would mess up! I just knew it!” I declared.
Then, while filling with resentment, I tried to manhandle the blade a bit to straighten out the messed-up flyers, and I knocked my thumb on a sharp edge of the cutter.
“Oh criminy,” I cried. A huge chunk of flesh was gouged out of my left thumb leaving it in a seriously sad state.
Now I was really mad!
“I just knew I shouldn’t have used this cutter. It is a piece of worthless junk!” I stated out loud to no one listening.
By now, I was seriously not in my metaphysical spiritual zone! I was waaaaaay out from practicing the Sermon on the Mount. That poor cutter was severely malpracticed. And I was suffering…
Finally, I started to realize what was happening. I caught the error. My thought had gotten completely out of control.
I started to wonder, “Where did all that furious anger come from?” It was like the floodgates of negativity swooned into my thinking for a few split seconds.
On one hand, an observer might state, “You cut your finger, are in severe pain; no wonder you’re angry.”
But that would not be a correct diagnosis.
I thought back to the “setup.”
By consenting to a possible misfortune before I even picked up the cutter, I opened my thought to being abused by evil. It was an open door for malcontent to flood into my consciousness during a moment of moral weakness. I had set myself up for the accident.
My thumb was a horrible mess, and it took me a while to calm down and get spiritually squared away, but with my wife’s help we got the bleeding under control and my sane state of mind restored.
I am a much better person for this experience. We always are, if we learn the spiritual lesson any trouble offers for acceptance. But I will do much better next time to not set myself up for suffering!
Some rules I learned:
Don’t let your guard down!
Don’t consent to failure ahead of time.
Don’t act with any tinge of resentment or anger. (You’ll bum your thumb)
And spare yourself suffering later on by not agreeing to it in the first place.
Whew. My thumb is rapidly healing. Yay! Love binds up the wounds…
So funny! And instructive, too. Thanks Evan!
Whoa!…..this was like looking in a mirror this morning!
I too have wondered where sudden anger and fury come from especially when out of proportion/context to the situation. I never considered it was the result of being “set up” then abused by error. That’s a pretty cool concept. Can’t wait to chew on it a bit.
….and a good morning to you too 🙂
Worked well on three sheets. lol–just a good thought!
How hilarious! You had me laughing my socks off, particularly when you said, “I hate that cutter.”
What I wanna know is: did you really use that mild word, “criminy”? 🙂
Now that it’s self-admission day, I can confess that yesterday, while going upstairs, I asked myself where a sudden flash of anger had come from, especially after I’d so un-angry in recent months. Two responses, in ascending order, came to me as I climbed the stairs.
First, I realized I’d been letting in lately the seemingly minor flaw of irritation. Since I’d already opened the door to that petty thief, I’d made it easy for the bigger burglar, anger, to push it open even wider.
But then, I had this really deep feeling of humility, willingness to give up this false photo of myself.
I felt in my heart, and knew for a fact, that God did not make me to EVER be angry or irritated. “That’s NOT me!” I declared.
At that thought, I felt relief. That gave me the impetus to reject those two arm-in-arm intruders — refuse to see them as having been part of my past and as capable of sneaking back into my life in the present.
So now that we’ve seen through and booted out that criminal cutter-off-from-harmony, mortal mind, it’s time to say, “THANK YOU, GOD, FOR MAKING US ALL GOOD ALL THE TIME.”
Wow, did I need this one. I was laughing until the tears were rolling down my face. Thank you for being so candid! How refreshing over the sometimes holier than thou attitudes of some of our fellow Scientists. Your willingness to share this incident gives great and laugh-filled healing moments for us all.
Oh my goodness! I have had many of those moments and afterwards went, wait, what really happened here? Thank you SO much for your total honesty here Evan. It really is helpful to see how you handled this situation. Such a good reminder that we are naturally happy and peaceful, not irritable.
and you are all missing the point. I say blame it on the wife for bringing the evil into the house. LOLOLOL
sorry Kathy
hugs
woody
I just finished listening to the Daily Lift, and now have read your blog, Evan. Both humorous, and the messages are clear and memorable. And a good way to head into Thanksgiving week!
Thanks for sharing, Evan! I, too, found your experience humorous, and so human! Thankfully, divine Mind intervened! I like the comment too,that someone else left about opening the door for anger by becoming a bit irritated at things. That one happened to me lately, too. I realized, though, that it was mortal mind holding up the wrong image of man before my thought, so corrected my thought, and all was well in very short order.