On Splinters

I just pulled a splinter out of my finger.
It took me about a half an hour's worth of digging into my skin with a needle before i could finally nab it with the tweezers.

At one point, my finger got all inflamed from poking at it for so long, so i sat down and knawed on some munchies until it calmed down again.

I first became aware of this splinter at around 11:00 this morning. But it was smallish, and i couldn't tell if it was just a cut or not. So I ignored it. There just wasn't enough incentive for me to find some place with a bright enough light to sit down and see what was wrong with my finger.

Then some 12 or so hours later, I finally looked at it, annoyed that it was still bothering me. Upon deciding that it was, in fact, a splinter, i set about trying to get it out.

Splinters.

They're annoying.

And they take effort to remove them.

Yet how much effort does it take to get one?

zero.

In fact, it takes so little effort to get a splinter, you generally can't try to get one.

Have you ever taken a piece of paper and tried to give yourself a paper cut?

It usually takes several attempts before you realize that it's a stupid idea. They just happen.

In my case, not only did the splinter just happen, but i didn't notice it until it had been lodged in my finger for several hours.

Left unchecked, splinters can get infected.

Metal splinters can give you Tetanus.

Heck, people probably die from them every year.


Now, i know splinters are kind of a lame example.

But isn't the scenario applicable to the way we go about life?

In Hebrews 2:1-3, the writer tells us, "We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?"[NIV]

Here's how The Message translation puts it:

"It's crucial that we keep a firm grip on what we've heard so that we don't drift off. If the old message delivered by the angels was valid and nobody got away with anything, do you think we can risk neglecting this latest message, this magnificent salvation?"

Sometimes we slip away, slowly enough that we don't even notice it. Or maybe we're just too lazy or unmotivated to seriously examine our lives. But if we dig deep for a little while, we can remedy a potentially big problem.

And splinters feel the best of all when they're gone.