Anger that festers

I never ceased to be amazed at God's constant teaching over ordinary events.  This week I had the opportunity to demolish an old shed from the 1950's,  carefully tearing it down board by board.  I hope to recycle the wood into a shed on my own property.  After 3 days of work and no real injuries, I accidentally step on a nail that went through my shoe and deep into my flesh.  Man that hurt!  Thankfully, my two kids were with me and helped me bandage the wound so I could keep working.  Of course, they tried to convince me to use the injury to take the rest of the day off, but there was too much work to do.  We worked for another 3 hours before we loaded up supplies to head home.  I couldn't imagine how painful operating a clutch would be with that injury on my left foot, but it was breathtakingly painful.  After arriving home and thoroughly cleaning the wound again, I decided to head to the urgent care in the morning for a tetanus shot, just in case. 

This morning at the medical clinic, the doctor informed me he'd put himself through medical college framing houses.  He jokingly said I broke the cardinal rule for a construction site.  I tried to explain that I'd been diligent in picking up every board that fell and moving it into a pile so no one would step on a nail.  Sadly, there was one I obviously missed that had recently fallen from the roof.  That one board had the old rusty nail which penetrated my sole.  After examining my injury, the doc agreed I needed a tetanus shot, but he also stated it looked, "swollen and angry" and as a precaution I should take antibiotics to prevent infection. 

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                                   Step, OUCH! Step, OUCH! Step, OUCH!

As I walked out of the office, I thought to myself, "so this is what anger really feels like."  Back in the car I began thinking on the various verses about anger and bitterness and how after something has penetrated your soul, these two negative emotions can move in and fester.  Left untreated, they infect your entire mindset and life.  When our hearts are wounded, we need to seek the Good Physician for healing.  He bares healing in His wings and will cover you with love and forgiveness until you are whole and can love and even forgive those that wound you.  His word is the strongest antibiotic we can ever have to counteract the infection of sin from destroying our lives.

I love hearing testimonies of God working in the lives of His children.  So if you have a cool story of God helping heal a wound, I love to hear it.  Also any funny construction stories you have are always good too.  God bless.

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Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice; and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
Ephesians 4:31-32