While riding around the other day I came upon a road that was being resurfaced.  It was a Saturday morning and the road crew had parked their equipment conveniently in the spot I was going to photograph.  As I circle these specialized machines looking for something unusual to take pictures of, I noticed this grimy surface.  This photo is the inside of the compartment which holds the payload of sticky tar and gravel.  Try to imagine the scorching tar as it is mixed with the small crushed stones until the consistency resembles that of slightly cooled lava.  Watch as it is slowly spread upon the old rough road, then flattened and smoothed by the big rolling pin and allowed to cool into what we know as asphalt.

        As I look into this grimy mud buggy encrusted with the bits and pieces left from a hard day of slinging a mixture of blistering super glue and jagged rocks (asphalt) I am amazed that they were able to get it this clean.  Don’t get me wrong, it was filthy and stank to high heaven, but think about it, look how clean it is compared to what it must have looked like yesterday.  We too live in a world filled with grime, grunge and dirt; we travel dusty roads and our feet get dirty.  Why do we wash our hands before we eat, why do we have eye drops, tooth paste and Q tips?  Because dirt happens!

        Now if it is a fact that we are all going to get dirty as we travel through life, why is it that we spend so much time slinging dirt at one another?  Have we deceived ourselves into believing that if we can make others appear dirtier we will somehow emerge cleaner?    Do we believe it is necessary to blow out the other person’s candle in order for our light to shine?  Can you sink someone else’s end of the boat and still stay dry?  Yet, we spend our time planting thorns and somehow expect to gather roses; we continue to fling our dirt upon our neighbors and never realize how dirty we are getting.

        We have spent so much time searching for dirt on our family, friends and coworkers that we are blinded to our own muddy hands.  I guess he who is in the mud likes to pull others into it.  Let us realize that the person, who spends his time in the dirt and mud, may be the person who is stamped on by the swine.  Let us live our lives picking people up instead of trying to pull them down.  Let us look for the good in those around us; let the words out of our mouth be positive, encouraging, and helpful.  What have we got to lose?

Something to think about:

• The easiest person to deceive is one’s own self.

• To reply to a nasty remark with another nasty remark is like trying to remove dirt with mud.

• No amount of falls will really undo us if we keep picking ourselves up each time. We shall of course be very muddy and tattered children by the time we reach home. . . . It is when we notice the dirt that the Master is most present in us; it is the very sign of his presence.

• It rained so hard that all the pigs got clean, and all the people dirty.

• I learned long ago never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.

• A gossip can give you all the details without knowing any of the facts.

• Gossip doesn’t hurt anyone—unless it is about us.

• A gossip is just a fool with a keen sense of rumor.

Looking for some soap
Rickey Moore