Thou Shalt Not Fish
Sometimes, making rules and regulations can backfire:
Consider the case of the Flagship Hotel in Galveston, Texas. This pier based hotel, constructed in the 1960’s, stretched 1,000 feet out to sea, capturing a panoramic view. Since the balconies were directly above the ocean, management decided to place signs in the room stating, 'Do Not Fish on Balcony.'
When the hotel was completed and ready to open, guess what started to happen? Guests began to fish off their balconies. Hotel guests would tie large lead weights to their fishing line to reach the ocean floor several stories below. Some guests would cast their line and miss the ocean altogether and the line would swing back towards the hotel, along with the heavy lead weights. Unfortunately, there were large picture windows on the first floor dining room and hotel management had to replace a number of broken windows. The crashing sound of windows breaking was a common occurrence to dining room guests.
The solution??
After evaluating their predicament, management wisely decided to remove all the “Do not fish on balcony” signs. This immediately resolved the problem of guests fishing on the balcony. It turns out guests did not even think about fishing until they read the sign.
Because of our fallen nature, the Law can actually work like an invitation to sin. It can take something good and holy like the Law and twist it to promote evil. Sin warps love into lust, an honest desire to provide for one’s family into greed, achievment into arrogance, ambition into bloodthirstiness, and the Law iitself nto a promoter of sin.
"But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead" (Romans 7:8, NIV).
"Therefore no one will be justified in His sight by works of the law. For the law merely brings awareness of sin" (Romans 3:20).
World's Dirtiest Man Dies at Age 94
Amou Haji, dubbed “The World’s Dirtiest Man” died at the age of 94 in his native town of Dejgah, Iran, on October 23, 2022. Haji’s claim to fame? Not bathing for over 60 yrs!
He was a hermit, living alone in an ash covered, cinder block shack. It is reported by locals that he survived by eating roadkill and smoking animal feces in a pipe, all the while believing that bathing would make him ill.
Amazingly, Haji lived a long and mostly healthy life. Until, that is, locals finally convinced him to bathe and seek medical examination. A few short months later, Haji grew ill and died.
No, bathing did not kill Haji, as some have speculated, but neither did it save him. He was an old man. Death comes to us all, regardless of our personal hygiene habits.
There is a sense in which we all have much more in common with Haji than just our inevitable mortality. The truth is, spiritually speaking, that we are all filthy. No amount of soap and water can wash away the sin that soils, defiles, and darkens our souls.
Yet unlike the ineffectual soap and water the locals used to try to cleanse Haji from his filthy past, there is a washing and renewing which can not only cleanse us from our past, but also grant us ultimate spiritual health and eternal life.
As the beloved hymn so accurately proclaims, “What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus!”
“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5, NKJV).
“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7, ESV).
“How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (Hebrews 9:14, NIV).
Uncombable Hair Syndrome
How many times have you awakened, looked in the mirror, and said, “Man, I’m having a bad hair day.” Well, for the 100 or so people around the world with the ultra-rare disease, Uncombable Hair Syndrome, they wake up every single morning to that reality. UHS stems from a genetic mutation through which the hair shaft takes on a rather triangular shape, causing the hair to stand up straight from the head, making it impossible for the hair to lay flat. As such, sufferers look unkempt, ungroomed, unruly, all the time.
No amount of effort on their part can manage their “bad hair.” Not rollers, nor, irons, nor gels, nor sprays.
One might think, just from looking, that these people simply don’t care about their appearance, or are blind to how unkempt and unruly they look. That’s because it takes a deep look into their genetic code to see just what’s really going on.
For most of us, we look into the mirror and we say to ourselves, “Hey, I don’t look too bad today!” And even if we awaken with a bad hair day, we can pull out the hot rollers or hair gel, and voilà, problem solved. We can present with a fairly tidy appearance. But what if we looked deeper into the mirror, into the core of our being?
At our core, in our soul of souls, we are all unkempt, untidy, and unruly. That’s because we are all born with a spiritual mutation … a sinful nature.
No amount of behavioral grooming can correct it. Oh sure, we can mask it, and present it with a pretty tidy appearance. We can justify it and say that it's not so bad. But we can’t correct it on our own. Only the “washing and renewing” of our spirit can do that.
“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.” (Titus 3:5, NKJV)