Catholic Singles

Follow the Instructions
BY: Mark Anthony Rosolowski

I still remember when I was young, and I would buy one of the balsa wood airplanes with the plastic propeller and the rubber band. I would put it together, attach the rubber band and twist the propeller to wind up the rubber band. Then set the plane on the picnic table, let go and watch it fly, running after it. Well, it seems logical that the more you wind the rubber band the farther the plane will fly. I would run back to the picnic table and wind the propeller again, winding it tighter, watching the rubber band get tighter and tighter, stretching it more and more as it kinks up and then POP, the rubber band broke, looking the instructions, "DO NOT OVERWIND".

Well, never to be the one to admit I should have read the instructions, (can you name a male that does read the instructions or ask for directions), I would go out and buy a model car. I would sit at the kitchen table with paper spread on it to keep the glue off the table and start putting the pieces together, getting upset as the pieces fell apart as I moved to the next step, getting frustrated as it would not stay together, finally giving up, looking at the instructions, "WAIT TILL COMPLETELY DRIED AND SET BEFORE MOVING ON TO NEXT STEP".

Now a normal person would realize you should read the instructions first, not me. I buy a gas powered plane and assemble it, for that part I did read the instructions, next I go out to a field, start the engine on the plane, grab the remote control and push the joystick forward, the plane picks up speed, it is going faster about to leave the ground and CRASH, it is now in a million pieces. Picking up the instructions, I see “HAVE PLENTY OF ROOM, DO NOT ATTEMPT TO FLY PLANE AROUND TREES”.

Not to be stopped by my own induced failure, I trudge on with life, making the same mistakes, always reading the instructions after I fail, after I make a mistake. I also took life the same way, I never really paid close enough attention to the instructions. I was happily married, had the start of a beautiful family, but I almost wound the rubber band to tight, was doing things too quickly before they were set and was running into the trees.

Finally, through the help of a friend I saw what I was doing, I quit drinking, had never hurt anyone, had never had a bad experience, but I was failing, I wasn’t following the instructions. One day my friend handed me a BIBLE, he told me to read, I asked why, his response is still with me to this day, “The word BIBLE stands for BASIC INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE LEAVING EARTH”.

It is amazing how easy things become when you read the instructions.