Two years ago I had to pull out the power tools because I needed to do some major repairs… unskilled worker with tools? This always turns out well… for other people who want to laugh at someone hurting themselves. The repairs were on my family’s tree house… no, we don’t live in a tree like in Swiss Family Robinson (yes, that’s a reference for old people like me). My dad built a tree house over thirty years ago as a way to make moving to the country more appealing to my sister when she was 6. It wasn’t bribery… it was… no, it was bribery. What did I get? Nothing. My parents claim it wasn’t favoritism, but I know better. I may have been one, but I wasn’t stupid; I was in diapers, but… okay, maybe I was stupid… or, to be more accurate, I am; I am stupid, which is why when I was working on the tree house I had an incident.
Our tree house needed work on the outside of it, which meant I had to use the 10ft step ladder. I was nailing a piece in when I realized I needed a pencil, so I left my hammer at the top of the ladder… that’s the kind of thing they show you not to do in instructional videos; I was about to learn why. While I was on the ground I decided to move the ladder to be in a good position; that was a good idea. Forgetting I still had the hammer up top was a bad idea because there’s this thing called gravity. While I was moving the ladder I was looking at the ground for a good place to put it when my forehead suddenly felt cold… or whatever that feeling is when it’s hit hard. It’s not quite pain; it’s the feeling before the pain sets in. It’s the feeling of “I’m dumb.” I felt my forehead and it was wet. It wasn’t sweat. I wasn’t recently licked by a dog. It wasn’t tears I had cried and flung around, which landed on my forehead. I didn’t sneeze into the wind, which caused it to blow back in my face. It was blood. In retrospect it’s quite impressive that of all the places the hammer had to fall it landed on me. Plus, of all the parts to hit me it wasn’t the soft handle, but the sharp claw part of the hammer, which meant it dug nicely into my skin. After hitting my forehead the claw also managed to land on my knee making another grand impression. It was an impressive show. I was definitely lucky because the claw could have dug in a lot more. It gouged me pretty good, but it could have done some serious damage. For instance, it could have taken a big chunk of my hair out and left me with a bald spot… yes, as a man a bald spot would be the worst thing to happen. Eye patches are cool; bald spots are not.
This incident could have been prevented with three main things:
- My head wasn’t in the way
- I didn’t leave the hammer on top of the ladder or forgot it was there
- I wore a helmet
When bad things happen many people will focus on the first issue because it becomes God’s fault. We get angry at Him because why’d He let it happen? Even though it happened because of our choices we often prefer to blame someone else because it can be easier to be angry at someone else than accept responsibility.
But even with these factors I could have avoided bleeding if I had been LOOKING UP. If I was looking up I could have seen the hammer getting ready to fall, which would’ve allowed me to stop it from hitting me. Keeping our eyes up is a practical way to prevent more bad things and/or worse things happening. Of course, if you’re hiking in rocky terrain or on a cliff edge you should look down, but, in general, we need to keep our eyes up. I used to hate people telling me to keep my chin up when things were bad because it could be hard. It has its benefits, but sometimes we’re just sad or upset. No matter how upset we are, however, we need to keep our eyes up in order to prevent more bad things that we can avoid from happening.
Keeping your eyes up can also have spiritual implications… but I’ll save that for another time
This week may you keep your eyes up in order to protect yourself and those around you from bad things happening.
Rev Chad David, EmotionalSex.ca, ChadDavid.ca