A story of staples

 Have you ever had something coming that you dreaded? You were sure that it was going to be awful. There was no way that you would make it through the situation. You thought about it, again and again, and the outcome was going to be bad no matter how it played out. That, my friends, is how I felt about today. Why today?

Today was the day that I was going to get the staples out of my knee. If you remember, when it was cleaned up while in the hospital, I had a pretty awful reaction. I thought about the staples coming out and I figured it would be just as bad. Every time I thought about it I knew it was going to be bad. I dreaded this day. I was going to go in and the doctor was going to remove them. I just knew that I was going to pass out again. I knew it was going to hurt. I knew it was going to be a terrible, bad, awful day.

Dr. D. came in. She had all the tools. The moment of truth. She started to take the bandage off. Peeling it down. "Oh boy, what is it going to be like?" I wondered to myself. She peeled it down. I didn't want to look and yet I knew I wanted to. So what did I do? I looked. And...

...it wasn't so bad. There was no blood. There was no redness in the incension. It actually looked good. The doc cleaned it up and kept talking to me. I asked how many staples there were - 14. So she started. One, two, three...and it was going well. No pinching. No pain. Nothing like I expected. Four, five, six...and we kept talking. Seven, eight, nine, ten...and things just kept going well. She was doing a great job. Did I have any doubt? Not about her but about me and how I would do. Eleven, twelve, thirteen and fourteen. They were all out! And it wasn't so bad.

I couldn't believe it. It wasn't as bad as I expected. Why did I dread this so much? Dr. D. applied glue to it in order to make sure it didn't pull apart. Put on the sani strips. And it was over. 

That is the way life is. At times the dread of a situation is often worse than the situation itself. Instead of spending so much time and energy dreading something, I should have turned it over to Jesus, let Him have the fear and face it with a confidence that comes from Him. Yes, the Lord taught me a lesson today. A lesson of 14 staples.