Ever been embarrassed? I mean really embarrassed? Then how did you respond to your faux pas? Were you able to recover gracefully? Or did you fight to defend your wounded ego? Explain that it wasn't really as bad as it looked? That it wasn't really your fault that it happened?

A group of firefighters in a suburb of Dallas, Texas, responded to an alarm on June 25. They did what every group of dedicated firefighters does when word comes that someone's property or life is in jeopardy. They left TV shows, card games, and intense conversation to move to the site of the danger as quickly as possible. With their specialized training and technical gear, they were on the spot in minutes to be of help to people in jeopardy. So far, so good!

With their work finished, they returned to their fire station on the south side of Dallas. As they came within sight of it, they saw smoke. When they got there, they found it ablaze. And they joined with firefighters from other stations to extinguish the blaze late that Thursday night. How embarrassing!

When they rushed to the aid of someone else, somebody left potatoes cooking on a stove in the firehouse. One of the very things fire departments warn the rest of us not to do, those firemen did. And the result was a fire that caused about $125,000 in damages to the Lancaster fire station. How embarrassing!

The firefighters had options at that point: Try to cover up what had happened. Explain defensively that it happened only because they responded so quickly to someone else's need. Be angry with any nosey reporter who dared to make a big deal of it. Discharge the fellow who had left the stove on and make him the scapegoat for the whole distressing fiasco.

Here is how it was handled: Fire officials told exactly what had happened and used it as an opportunity to remind the rest of the people in Dallas not to leave food cooking before leaving home. Can you think of a better response they could have made? But is it the typical response for most of us?

How embarrassing!
All of us know ourselves too well to expect perfection of others. When there has been an obvious goof at work, in a family, or in the life of a church, something seems to kick in that generates the most absurd responses. Anger. Denial. Explanations that don't explain. Blaming that only serves to alienate.

"Never be ashamed to own you have been in the wrong," Jonathan Swift once wrote. "It is but saying you are wiser today than you were yesterday."

If your boss is angry with you, don't quit! A quiet spirit can overcome even great mistakes. (Ecclesiastes 10:4)