For the Want of a Caution Sign

Eight dollars and seventy cents is on my mind today as I am getting some things in order before my busy day tomorrow when I will have surgery to repair the damage left by a slip on wet floor during which my shoulder was dislocated three months ago.  

 

Eight dollars and seventy cents; that’s the cost of an inexpensive “Caution Wet Floor” sign to put in the area where the floor had just been mopped.

 

Eight dollars and seventy cents; that’s it; that’s all it would have taken to save thousands of dollars of medical bills including an ambulance ride, the cost of all that was done in the emergency room to put the shoulder back in the socket, the trips to the orthopedic doctor, as well as the physical therapy that was done in an attempt to bring healing to the shoulder. 

 

Eight dollars and seventy cents; that’s it; that’s all it would have taken to save the cost of the MRI that was needed to discover why after seven weeks the pain was still there and the shoulder wasn’t better.

 

Eight dollars and seventy cents; that’s it; that’s all it would have taken to have prevented the fail which resulted in collateral damage to other areas of my life such as not being able to sleep very long at night since the injury due to the pain. And not being able to shovel the snow, lift weights or exercise or play hockey. Or teach my granddaughter to skate this winter.

 

Eight dollars and seventy cents; that’s it; that’s all it would have taken to save the cost of the surgery, the trips to the orthopedic doctor, and the physical therapy afterwards. And, there is the cost of time off work, another LONG time of no activity, no driving, no lifting, or playing hockey as I am looking at three to six months until it might be fully recovered. 

 

Now, I’m not mad; I’m really not. Accidents happen. In fact the reason the floor was being mopped was because someone saw a mess on the floor and took action to clean it up; they were doing a good deed! But all might have been prevented if someone had placed out a sign that cost eight dollars and seventy cents.

 

So where are the places that you are in recovery simply because you didn’t do something that would have cost so much less if you had taken the time to do it when you had the chance?

 

In our spiritual life, we dare not procrastinate in doing something tomorrow instead today, who knows what the cost will be. It is also unwise to delay healing a broken relationship or dealing with anger or getting things right , today, instead of waiting to see what the cost will be in the future. Who says that we have another day? The Bible says;

 

 “The days of our lives are seventy years;
And if by reason of strength they are eighty years,
Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow;
For it is soon cut off, and we fly away” (Psalm 90:10 NKJV)

“Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:2b NKJV)

 

Kind of makes you wonder what will be the cost of not doing something now when you have the chance?

 

“For the want of a nail the shoe was lost,
 For the want of a shoe the horse was lost,
 For the want of a horse the rider was lost,
 For the want of a rider the battle was lost,
 For the want of a battle the kingdom was lost,
 And all for the want of a horseshoe-nail.” – Benjamin Franklin