Litmus Test 

Pastor Duck's Weekly Column 

Taiwan Church News 2659, February 16, 2003

Translated by David Alexander 

My wounds grow foul and fester because of my foolishness. (Psalm 38:5) 

Siao-mei loves to swim. Wherever she travels in her job as a consulting engineer, she tries to swim each day. Ocean, lake, river or pool; warm water or cold, she wants to be in it. 

One day a month ago she was careless and burned her ankle quite seriously on a motorcycle muffler. The doctor who bandaged it instructed her to keep the wound clean and dry. 

But Siao-mei loves to swim. She could not resist her daily swin. Ocean, lake, river or pool, warm water or cold. She wants to be in it. 

She was always careful to dry the wound after swimming, but it didn't heal. It festered and became foul. The doctor asked her about her habits, and she told him that she had continued to swim every day. He called her a fool. 

In my interpersonal relationships there are wounds that have not healed. In my relationship with God there are places which I would rather that God not touch, because they hurt too much. 

God is a healer of wounds. Those that you and I still might have, wounds that have not healed, that have grown foul and festered, are the indications that, in some ways, we are fools. 

Prayer: Heal us, O Lord, for we have had enough of our own foolishness. AMEN