A Form Shall be an Abomination to Thee; Neither Shalt Thou Fill in Bubbles

If I ever get in real trouble in this life, it will probably be because of a form. I am allergic to forms. I cannot fill them out. They lie about me after I send them in. They never have the right blanks for me to say what I need to say. And it gives me ulcers just to look at them.

Today I had to deal with forms. I have some loose ends in my life that I want to clean up. Debts and so on. Nothing big, but I want a clean slate, for spiritual reasons.

The reason I let things go is not that I don’t recognize an obligation to pay. I just hate the forms. So there have been times when I’ve let minor obligations rot, much longer than I should have.

Today I caught up with a tax return I was supposed to file in another state. I thought I was going to have a big bill to pay. I didn’t know if I had the information to fill the forms out correctly. I was tense. I was filled with dread. I wished I could be anywhere else, doing anything but this. I worked on this stuff for almost three hours.

I owed one dollar.

I’m not kidding. It’s less than the postage for the return. I have no idea what the revenue people will think when that check comes in. I hope they don’t think I’m making fun of them. The debt came out to one dollar, and I figured it was better to pay than to let it go.

This reminds me of the times I’ve received bills for $0.00 and similar sums. I never question them. Do what I do. Write a check for $0.00 and send it off. Don’t bother the bureaucrats. They can’t fix it, and you just embarrass them.

Bureaucrats are always hard to figure. Life is full of petty bureaucrat-managed obligations that can end up causing you real grief. Sometimes being honest can cause problems. You know what they say about letting sleeping dogs lie. It is possible to ruin your life by letting a bureaucrat know you owe fifty cents. The followup can be unbearable, and even the bureaucrat may wish you had left it alone. On the other hand, if you leave things to fester, you may eventually discover that a horrible bureaucratic nightmare was secretly gestating the whole time. Like, you’ll try to buy a house, and when you apply for a loan, they find out you forgot to return a library book in 1968, so your assets get frozen and your car gets impounded. Or you get sterilized or something.

I am clearing these niggling items out of the back of my life’s sock drawer. I only have one or two more to attend to.

Okay, I tried to find a great Bible verse about this, but when I searched, this is what I came up with:

12 They shall lament for the teats, for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.

Who doesn’t lament for the teats? I sure do. Whatever that means. But that’s not what I was looking for. That’s Isaiah 32:12. I was looking for Isaiah 32:17:

17 And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.

18 And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places;

19 When it shall hail, coming down on the forest; and the city shall be low in a low place.

20 Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass.

I saw that this morning in a book published by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.

It’s true; the better you behave, the better you’ll feel. And the more God will do for you. I don’t just mean your acts; faith is a behavior.

There is nothing like peace. It is the best thing you can get. When you have peace (and you’re not crazy or on drugs or sadly deceived), it means your life is as it should be. I only know of one place to get that feeling.

You know what? There are no forms in heaven. I’m sure of it. I can’t prove it. But how could it be heaven if there were forms there?

I can provide useful input on a lot of this stuff, but you’re on your own with the teats.