I had to greet today’s Internet buzz about Rick Warren with a subtle muttering to myself, “That sucks.” I think Warren seems like a genuine, kind-hearted man, and I feel for him. Warren was working in his garden on Monday when some contact with the Firestick Plant resulted in a little residual sap on his hands. Sap on the hands, no problem. Sap in the eyes–serious problem.
After getting some of the funk from the “Blinding Tree” into his eyes, Warren took to twitter, asking for prayers from friends, family and members of the Saddleback Church where he serves as a Pastor.
It’s not uncommon for such a sap related problem to arise , thus the Firestick Plant being nicknamed the “Blinding Tree.” Clearly, others have dealt with the pain.
Generally the sap burns and stings like the dickens, but when flushed with enough water and “cried out,” it begins to lose its potency and all things return to normal. Yeah, it’s probably like getting hit with pepper spray, or that stuff Ninjas use to blow in the eyes of a foe.
Unfortunately for Warren, the effects were prolonged, and he was without his eyesight–struggling with severe pain. The pain was so debilitating that he was zipped to the hospital because he couldn’t articulate to his wife what had happened. He was eventually released, given ointments to help with the recovery, and after about 24 hours of suffering, he was able to finally get his eyes open without excruciating result.
I’m gonna go out on a limb and state that he’ll never preach on the conversion of Paul or sing the first verse of Amazing Grace the same way again. Sincerely, I’m praying for his well being, and a full recovery. A sufferer of a pretty nasty eye injury once upon a time, I can say that few things in life have scared me, but that was one of them.
(Image via: Water Wise Garden Plants)
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