CP 194 Boys doing dumb things

CP 194 Boys doing dumb things…

Many dumb things were done in my childhood. One of my brothers, and a friend, both aged 15, swam across the Murrumbidgee River at Oura. No problem? We were camping, it was after dark and it was during the August school holidays. Night temperatures frequently dropped below zero at that time of the year. The pair were on their way to the Wagga Drive-in 10kms away on the east side of the river! They got there, half-frozen, and did manage to see half a movie by the grace of a patron who let them sit in his car. On the way back to our tent they got lost in the fog. When they located the river they couldn’t work out whether to turn left or right. Eventually, fully frozen, they managed to swim back across the river at 1.30am.

The above-mentioned friend used to lay down in the middle of the Old Narrandera Road? Could that be a problem? Well, yes, especially if it was at pub closing time on an unlit section of road. Why do it? For kicks. An inebriated drinker would (hopefully) stop to check on the ‘body’ which would suddenly ‘resurrect’ with a laugh and then race off into the darkness. ‘He’ was never amused.

Another (grown-up) brother went fishing on the river with friends. Wasn’t much happening so they decided to try their luck, Crocodile Dundee style, with a stick of gelignite. Did you know that gelignite floats if the deadweight accidentally slips off? And do you have any idea how fast people can row a boat when ‘live’ gelignite floats to the surface?

One of my really dumb things was to jump into the deep-end of the Wagga City Baths with a plastic bag over my head. “I wanted to see what would happen.” That’s what I told the alert life-guard who saved my life. I’ve written elsewhere about the idiocy of trying to do ‘the ton’ as a 1 month P-Plater. Walking down Darlinghurst Rd at 2.30am wasn’t clever either. And I can tell you there is zero joy in store if you set out to drink as much whisky as you can for ego’s sake. For some reason I’ve been thinking of these things lately. Every last episode of stupidity could have ended with a fatality if not serious injury. Then out of the blue this morning I remembered another one. Once again it involved the river. Until this morning, I had never considered the danger in which I placed myself.

Just downstream from home there’s an island where we often played. Usually it was hide and seek. There were all sorts of nooks and crannies in which to hide. You could almost disappear in among the reeds provided you kept perfectly still. One day I found the perfect hiding place. It was inside a hollowed-out eucalypt which was lying on its side in the river beside the island. The tree was at least 1 metre wide and it had a tiny hole in its side, just above water level, which birds might have found attractive if it was upright. Once inside, I could watch the searcher but he could not see me. There was a minor catch though. To get to the hidey-hole I had to enter that hollow space by going underwater! This morning, for the first time it dawned on me that if anything had ever happened to me inside that log I might well never have been found.

Why am I telling you these? Well for one thing it underlines that life is fragile and we can do dumb things which can end a life quickly. For another, all of us can grow in awareness of protection and therefore also grow in thankfulness for life. It is true that life is a gift, but sometimes survival is a gift as well. Thirdly, such near-misses can help us develop a sense of being kept safe for a purpose, especially Kingdom purposes. And there is something else. It has to do with growing in faith.

All of us, sometimes wilfully, and sometimes without thinking, will have placed ourselves in situations which are spiritually dangerous for us and which cause deep grief for the Spirit of God. At the time we hardly consider the implications. Think of permissions you have given yourself, and subsequent actions, to do with anger, greed, lust, unclean relationships, jealousy, hatred, ambition, bitterness, immorality, dabbling in the occult, scorn for life, scorn for authority, dishonesty, drunkenness, laziness… Some of these things (and their accompanying guilt/shame) will only return to consciousness years later. However there is a liberating truth. The forgiveness for them has been in place from the moment of faith in Jesus Christ, whether it came at the time of our baptism or through the heard Gospel.

King David might well shudder that “You have set our secret sins in the light of your presence.” (Psalm 90:8). He also knew another truth: “There is forgiveness with you that you may be feared.” (Psalm 130:4) The Apostles, like Paul, knew the best truth of all: “There is therefore, now, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1) So there! Whether your particular sins arose out of dumb foolishness or deliberate wickedness, hold fast to Jesus the Christ, for because of him, because of Good Friday, the Father in Heaven declares that, “I will forgive their wickedness, and will remember their sins no more.” (Hebrews 8:12)

May your week be blessed. Fred