Tear the Tag Off The Mattress

I was packing up my hockey gear from the winter season and I noticed that my Bauer Hockey Gloves still had a tag on them; the same tag that was on them when Cathy purchased them as a gift for me.

I’m not sure why I left it on all season; it’s not as though I really needed the information; especially if it was the instructions for how to clean the gloves. Cleaning instructions for hockey equipment? Get real!

Maybe I was afraid that if I did cut off the tags then the “mattress” police would come and get me, stating that it is unlawful to remove the tags from a mattress or pillow!

The specific US Code we’re dealing with here is Title 15 – Commerce and Trade, Chapter 2, Subchapter V – Textile Fiber Products Identification, Section 70c – Removal of stamp, tag, label, or other identification Statute (a) Removal or mutilation after shipment in commerce.

But, unbeknownst to many consumers out there, the warning that it is unlawful to remove the tags from a mattress or pillow is for mattress sellers only; not for the consumers.

Perhaps I was more interested in following the rules rather than enjoying life…

While I realize that nothing on this earth really lasts long nor does it give eternal life, I think that some of us get so hung up on the rules that we miss out on really living life.

Some of us feel guilty after we’ve eaten French fries and drank a Coca Cola! We count calories and apologize for spending money on candy. After all, we aren’t supposed to: “drink or chew or hang with those who do…” or are we?

I confess to you that I personally have had way too many experiences that were not sinful and yet I still felt the need to apologize to someone for simply enjoying life!

Way too many times I was so in touch with suffering in this world that I allowed this knowledge to tempt me to feel guilt that I had an opportunity to enjoy something they weren’t.

The apostle Paul wrote

 “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify.” (1 Corinthians 10:23)

Sure that we would take things to the extreme Paul wrote:

 “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” (Romans 6:1-2)

You see, in the garden of Eden there were two trees”: One was the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil”; which we were not supposed to eat from (and yet we do-daily!).

The other was “The Tree of Life”; which was given to us to eat from. Jesus said in John 10:10 that He came to bring us LIFE; abundant life; which means:

superabundant (in quantity) or superior (in quality); by implication exceeding abundantly above, more abundantly, advantage, exceedingly, very highly, beyond measure, more, superfluous

Yet we are more interested in following the rules rather than enjoying life…

If you find yourself in this predicament, then stop not enjoying life and being so hung up with the letter of the law that you miss the whole point of what God is saying; STOP!

In other words, tear the tag off the mattress!

Or as Weatherman Phil Connors said in “Ground Hog Day”:

“It's the same thing every day, Clean up your room, stand up straight, pick up your feet, take it like a man, be nice to your sister…Oh yeah, don't drive on the railroad tracks.”

All Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.