Pride Goes Before a Fall

Friday, I took a great fall while cutting a big dead limb off a dead oak tree just off my property northwest of Benton Airpark. The fall was the result of my arrogance in disregarding safety rules for the use of chain saws and ladders. When the limb broke as I was cutting it about 8 feet up on a ladder, the limb kicked back a bit and I was catapaulted into the air and falling back-first into the dry depression below the tree whose waters in winter flow on down a short distance into Calaboose Creek. I was relaxed and almost enjoying the free fall for the half second I estimate that it took for me to reach the ground at the 32 ft/sec/sec acceleration rate of gravity. My buttocks and upper pelvic area took the bulk of the impact with the merest tap on the back of the head as if the Father were gently telling me, "Don't ever do something like this again." The blackberry vines were rather sparse a gave only a little cushioning and only a few scratches. That I was not seriously injured is, I believe, a miracle. On the other hand, I am in enough pain to almost immobilize me even with big doses of Ibuprofen (2000 mg/day~). God's love is much better than the much overhyped "unconditional love." He loves me enough to correct me in ways that will gentle my stubborn heart and change my behavior. Proverbs 13:13 nails it down: "He who scorns instruction will pay for it, but he who respects a command is rewarded."