The Burning Bush

I had a reality check the other day.

I was doing some yard work, since it was the first warm weather after the snow melted. I picked up sticks and some fallen branches and then took some shears and went about cutting down some bushes. I believe it's called fountain grass (picture a tuft of grass but four to six feet high, a foot or two in diameter). One bush in particular was larger than the rest and I could see that it would take too long to do it by hand. So I went and got fire.

It took about five seconds before the dry, yellow grass became a towering fifteen foot blowtorch roaring only inches away from my garage. In stunned disbelief, I tilted my head and calculated the response time of the local fire department, the cost of replacing my garage and it's contents, and the loss of face from everyone over five who understands not to play with matches.

As quickly as it started the fire died down to nothing, my garage unscathed. Meanwhile the grass in my yard had started burning and I quickly went about rescuing miscellaneous yard items from being burned.

After everything was under control, I stopped to consider what had happened. Did I understand how fire worked? Yes. Did I have experience successfully burning things without causing property damage? Yes. Did I understand that starting a fire two feet from an outbuilding without any handy source of water would be considered by most people "foolhardy?" Yes.

Then what was I doing?! Why do people knowingly do things that are likely to hurt them in the long run? Why do people lie, steal, cheat, and set their yards on fire when they know better? Do we have a death wish? Do we want to ruin every relationship, opportunity, and blessing we have?

It must be some unredeemed aspect of human nature. A reckless disregard for cause and effect usually visible only in men with power tools but present in every conniving scheme and manipulation in human experience. It will not be resolved by more education or more experience. And it is not the exclusive property of the poor or the dimwitted.

But it may be another indicator that we can't trust our own wisdom and that our hearts need help beyond what we can do for ourselves.