Ten-Finger Exercises

miscellaneous and sin

No one replied to my question about "chickens," but I discovered from reading Nada 's blog that I was wrong. They aren't the miscellaneous stray thoughts that I rounded up and put into a blog. They're evidently the stray thoughts that cross the road in front of you when you actually started out going somewhere and then got distracted. Is that right?

It's been icy and slippery out today, and my 1 o'clock appointment cancelled. Too bad because I had to drive past there anyway on the way to a meeting later. And I had to get out and put in some hours for my time card. So, instead of staying at home writing, I was out among old people with colds. Not pleasant. They didn't feel much like having company either.

As I went through my morning prayers this morning, the line, "Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us" stuck out. The psalm today, as many of the psalms do, spoke of enemies and asked God to "deliver me from the hand of the wicked."
I couldn't think of any personal enemies I have or people who have sinned against me, but then it occurred to me to think about the annoying people I was complaining about yesterday, and others.

It isn't a sin to be annoying, although I could say that the instructor yesterday was "missing the mark," another term for sinning. If I thought that, which I did, I should tell her upfront how I feel about her class. Maybe she hadn't thought about it being less than it might be.

As for the class member who talked loudly and constantly, and the prospective plane buyer who called and ranted often-- my annoyance is my problem, not theirs. My sin. If I have any control over my feelings, and I believe we do, then I could choose not to be annoyed. It would change the looks I give people and the sound of my voice, things that are noticed whether we think so or not.

I have an old friend who says that we are all born with machine guns mounted on our heads, metaphorically. We spend years dodging other people's bullets before we finally realize we're shooting too.

"Sin" is a loaded word. If you think of it as missing the mark rather than doing awful things, you'll see why we are all truly sinners.


Now I need a joke to lighten things up. Have you heard about the new sports bra that has a built-in iPod and speakers? It's for women who are tired of men staring at their breasts and not listening to them.