A Sticky Mess

I tried something unusual the other day. Bubblegum fudge. It was surprisingly good. At least for the small sample I tried.

When I was a kid I loved bubblegum.

Bazoooka was my favorite.

Mostly because of the comics, but also because they made the best bubbles.

The soft kind was no good - not enough consistency for the bigger bubbles.

I could blow a bubble as big as my head!

The problem, of course, was knowing when to stop

so it wouldn't pop in my face.

The smaller bubbles were easy to handle - especially when the gum still had some resiliency. You could use the gum to stick to itself and mostly it lifted right off your skin. But the big bubbles - those stretched so thin that it was harder to remove. More than once I had to have a chunk cut out of my hair. I often spent a week or more scrubbing at the sticky residue left by one of my mishaps.

I've often used this word picture to describe shame (which is not the same as godly sorrow that leads to repentance - this 'shame' is a false guilt that blames, criticizes and declares us 'unworthy' and decries the blood Christ shed for us). Imagine blowing a bubble as big as your entire body and having it pop all over you. Shame sticks to us like that. it's almost impossible to get rid of -

There are other sticky 'residues' in our lives that are equally hard to get rid of - anger, jealousy, bitterness, fear, worry, anxiety, discontentment. Just like bubblegum, if we chew on these things and roll them around in our minds, like popping a bubble they can end up stuck all over us.

Ephesians 4, verses 31and 32 tell us to clean up our act. The Amplified Bible puts it this way, "Let all bitterness and indignation and wrath (passion, rage, bad temper) and resentment (anger, animosity) and quarreling (brawling, clamor, contention) and slander (evil-speaking, abusive or blasphemous language) be banished from you, with all malice (spite, ill will, or baseness of any kind).

And become useful and helpful and kind to one another, tenderhearted (compassionate, understanding, loving-hearted), forgiving one another [readily and freely], as God in Christ forgave you."

Hmmmh.No more bubbles for me.

All for Him,

Missy