I decided to apply the vinyl lettering to my stairs today. Sixteen stairs couldn’t take that long—two hours, tops. I rolled out the scripture on the table and cut out the phrases of 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, the love chapter.

Working from the top down, I was sure to be finished by lunch. But by eleven, I only had four stairs done. Four. Who knew this seemingly easy project was going to take all day long.

One particular stair really frustrated me. The letters kept ripping and then the contact paper stuck to itself and then stuck to the letters I’d already set in place. Before I even realized it, I let a cuss word slip out of my mouth.

After my slip up, I leaned back against the wall and chuckled, then said out loud, “It’s kind of ironic that I cussed when I was trying to do something holy.”

I sat there and thought about that reality. How many times have I been “going about the Lord’s business” and gotten irritated? Not just irritated, but lost my cool and totally misrepresented God in the process.

Makes me think about church hurt. So many of us get wounded by people in connection to the church. We bring our frustration with us. Our own agendas. Or selfish ways. And we hurt people. And in turn, we often get hurt ourselves.

Even in the holy, we bring our flesh, just like I did with my bad language and the vinyl scriptures. Let’s be careful this week and check ourselves. Even with our best intentions we still bring our broken selves with us—even in the holy.