Piggy #4, I Think

Toe Nails. Now we have a topic almost nobody gets excited over. However, for today the topic of toe nails will assist us in seeing a truth. Surely the excitement over toe toppers has already begun to climb!

Did you hear about the fellow whose toe was hurting? It was his ring finger toe. Okay, I don’t know what to call it, but it has to have some designation.

How about the “little piggy that had none” toe? You recall the Mother Goose nursery rhyme, “This Little Piggy”? I found it in exactly this format on two separate internet websites, so with the confidence that comes from extensive research I give you the piggy poem…

This little piggy went to market,
This little piggy stayed at home,
This little piggy had roast beef,
This little piggy had none.
And this little piggy went...
"Wee wee wee" all the way home...
Paragraph 5 -- Counting, moving, etc are participles used as adjectives and should be placed next to the word that they modify.

We are talking about the fourth toe over, counting from the big toe, moving from the largest toe on the foot toward the smallest toe, and counting the toes on one foot and not on two feet, moving from the center of the person toward the other edge, the edge closest to the large toe, not the front edge but the side edge, counting all toes, expecting that for most folks five is the standard number of toes on each foot, not allowing for deviation from this standard for birth defects or loss of toe (or toes) due to accident or injury, not allowing for partial loss of any toe, …

The ring finger toe.

So this fella’ was experiencing pain in his toe. After a couple of days, it didn’t dissipate or completely vanish so he decides to check out his toes. The guy takes a closer look and discovers what is causing his pain. His toe nails have grown and are in need of a trimming. So he trims his nails, all ten of them. And goes his merry way.

The only problem is that his pain continues. He assumes that with a small injury like his that a couple of days will be necessary for healing, so he allows for this time lapse only to discover that he still has the pain he originally took note of. Hmmm. What is going on?

He again inspects his pinkies. The one little piece of nail on the ring finger side of his pinkiest pinky toe is still too long. The result is that the one piece that was first rubbing him the wrong way is still doing so.
All that effort and the single action necessary to bring relief has been left undone. Whoops.

The point of this piggy parable? It is simply this: we can generate a lot of thought and activity intended to improve our situations, but if we are not careful, never do what is needed.

I see myself do this in my personal life. I see this done in our shared church life. I/We do it a lot. And it doesn’t seem to bug us or instruct us to do better the next time.

We hurt, we suffer, we struggle. We react, we study, we take action. And we haven’t changed what wasn’t working for us to begin with. Activity does not equal solution.

We could get into an exploration of multiple layers of complex answers to the straight forward question, “Why?” but I think we will just leave it at “Let’s watch for this one and trim the toe nail that needs trimming.” ‘Nough said.

Tim Gramly
Education Pastor
South Haven Baptist Church
December 8, 2009