Dashboard said it best....

"we were looking out for love.
and we were flirting with disaster

while the world fades out
we stayed in the sun too long
suffered a terrible burn
now everybody learns from disaster"
~Dashboard Confessional

everybody learns from disaster... or do they?

sun burns and decisions... seems to be a good comparison. after all how many times have you gotten sun burnt after thinking "i knew this would happen" and how many times have you made a decision only to think afterwards "i knew this would happen".

so do we really learn after disaster? sometimes i think we do and sometimes i think we ignore the previous burn, making the same choice yet hoping for a different result. [pretty sure i just defined insanity too btw but thats not my point].

okay so i love a good tan. who doesnt. so when summer comes around i bask in all the sun's glory hoping for that perfect tan by end of the summer. problem is, i work. i work a normal job with a normal time frame: 8-5. so when im out of work, the sun is calming down and getting ready for bed, leaving me with only saturdays and sundays to perfect my hopeful tan.

my awful strategy that i repeat for the summer: avoid sunscreen, i'll tan faster.
ha. when has THAT ever worked!?

my first burn of the summer wasnt too bad. i had been fake n bakin for a while so i had a decent base to work off of. still avoided that SPF though ;-)

my second burn... well my nose peeled in a matter of hours and i was a pink lobster. after i put the aloe on for a few days with no peeling i thought "phew, im in the clear. no snake skin process for me!" yeah right. when has THAT ever worked?! a few days later, i started peeling. and then i thought "i knew this would happen"

so in comparison: when i make the same decision and receive the same results, you think i would learn and do something different in order to receive different results.

i was so close to making that "different" choice in a recent life experience. i am 98% sure i will receive the same results, the same disaster.

most disastrous situations we get ourselves in to are almost always avoidable if we listen to our gut. our gut usually tells us what is right. not always is it fun or the popular choice. it's usually right because its usually the weight that the Lord is putting on us. more times than not, we avoid His calling because its not what WE want to do.

i have found that the most hurt and pain that i have felt, i have caused on myself for not listening or not doing what i know is right. instead i have made the choices that are fun and popular at that given moment. later do i deal with the consequences. later do i learn from disaster.

while on my lunch break today i surfed the mighty MSN WonderWall. the news feed for the rich and famous. basically an online tabloid. waste of time? yes. entertaining? yes.
as i read the cast for the next Celebrity Rehab [never even seen the show but whatever], i read a quote that i questioned. it seemed ridiculous the more i thought about it. it was said by a former Laguna Beach star. he has encountered a total of 6 alcohol-related arrests at the age of 24. he has been casted for this show in hopes that he will recover from this downward spiral pattern.

his quote was along the lines of "God did this to me for a reason..."

what struck me was the way he worded it. it wasn't "this happened to me for a reason" it was "GOD did this to me for a reason"
I dont believe that. but it did make me question why we experience things that are so unbelievably painful, dramatic, hurtful and discouraging.
did GOD do that do him? i dont believe He did. when we weep, God weeps. when we hurt, He hurts. so hypothetically speaking, what if, for instance, our God was a selfish God, why on earth would He want to hurt and weep when all of us do? He would be sobbing for all eternity and why if He were a selfish God, why would He do that to Himself?!

the thing of it is, our God is not a selfish God. It's hard to fathom what He puts up with. we are crazy people down here and He has taken on all our decisions; the good, the bad, the ugly. that to me is not selfish. but anyways, i am getting on a rabit trail here.

so this young man thinks that God made him experience 6 alcohol related arrests. God did that to him. it's an interesting thought. I think God put him in situations where he could choose the right decision and he didnt so now he is facing the earthly consequences which in turn makes him think that this sucky situation he got himself into is an act solely responsible by God Himself.

if we learned from disaster then we would have a preventative maintenance plan [yes that is a term from work.] our preventative maintenance plan would be to avoid situations like the one we just lived. make a change in the pattern you are living and maybe you will have a change in results. maybe listen to that rock in your stomach that says to leaving the party, finish that drink and drink no more, or whatever it may be. maybe if you think before you act something will change but until then, expect the same results, the same sun burn, the same disaster.

la ta di da...
just a thought from my ol' noggin. take it for what it's worth. i'm far from having a M.D. tagged to my name. ;-)