The Dumbest Thing I Ever Did

If you are my relative or childhood friend, you need to know this is my devotion. You don’t get to vote. I alone have identified “the dumbest thing I ever did.”

It isn’t the homemade coffee can bomb in the back yard.

Or the BB in my cousin’s gut that was accidentally introduced into a game of lightning bug laser tag.

You can forget about the ten-foot fall through the hayloft barn opening.

Or the fire in the middle of my grandparent’s living room.

As well, I was too young to be held responsible for my personal trek across a four-lane highway when I was five and my father forgot to pick me up from school.

To qualify as “dumb”, I believe it is necessary to have a thought process which totally ignores the laws of physics or reason. Most of my examples above are in this category, but there is only one “dumbest.”

It was a lazy summer afternoon and my grandmother was in the basement doing laundry when I decided I needed to toast a cracker.

Dumb factor #1: Crackers are already toasted.

I slipped a cracker in the toaster and pushed down the lever. When it popped, the cracker turned sideways, making it impossible to retrieve with my bare hands. So, I grabbed a knife.

Dumb factor #2: I could have turned the toaster upside down and the cracker would have fallen out.

I stuck the knife in the toaster and immediately felt a strong surge of electricity pulse through my body. It was as if my hand was glued to the knife. I tried to cry out for help but couldn’t. With one, last desperate tug, I found the strength to pull the knife out of the toaster. It flew over my head and into my grandmother’s metal kitchen cabinets.

I remember shaking for the rest of the afternoon. I also remember unplugging the toaster and sticking the knife back in to retrieve the cracker.

Dumb factor #3: I could still have turned the toaster upside down to remove the cracker.

I count this mistake as my “dumbest” because it is the closest I have ever come to killing myself.

God is too kind to call us “dumb”. Instead, he uses the word “fool.” Look it up in a Bible concordance. I just did and had 78 hits for the New International Version of the Bible. Many of the references are from the book of Proverbs. A few have to do with how people are perceived when they act unwisely.  Most have one thing in common: they refer to a bad choice over a good one, either as a result of poor values or the inability to see the connection between unwise actions and negative consequences.

It is hard to pick a “most foolish” (aka “dumbest”) decision from scripture. But I will venture a possibility. The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” (Psalm 14;1). I don’t mean to be unkind to those who have rejected God. I care deeply for these and hope they will reconsider their conclusions before it is too late.

However, it is important to consider the things one must ignore to proclaim “There is no God.” The list includes:

The unimaginable complexity and beauty of creation, from an expansive universe to the smallest particles of inner space yet to be discovered.

The creative genius and creativity of the human mind.

The relational nature of humanity, which allows people like you and me to process millions of pieces of data, spoken and unspoken, in our interaction with others.

The practical qualities of God’s Word. God’s Word works in our lives because He has supernatural insight into our inner beings. He knows all things and isn’t surprised by anything.

God’s intervention in our lives which demonstrates His faithfulness in times of trouble.

My personal list could go on and on. Are there things about God I don’t understand?

Absolutely!

Do I have doubts and questions?

Certainly!

But I am not going to let the smaller portion of things I cannot figure out about God keep me from trusting Him as a result of the considerably larger portion I know.

I would be a fool to reject Him.

And I ought to know.

I have been a fool before.