In the early 1950’s, the World Health Organization was faced with the problem of malaria among the Dayak people in Borneo. They had an answer that was short, simple and wrong. Their plan was to spray DDT all over the place and kill the mosquitoes that carried malaria. The mosquito population declined, the incidence of malaria dropped, and the program was declared a success.

They discovered, however, that the roofs of the people’s houses were falling in on their heads. It seems that the DDT had poisoned wasps which fed off thatch eating caterpillars. Without the wasps, the caterpillars proliferated, they ate the thatch, and the roofs fell in.

The World Health Organization found it also had a worse problem because the DDT had built up in the food chain. It got into the insects, which were eaten by little lizard-like creatures called geckos, which were eaten by the cats. The cats died, the rats flourished, and the World Health Organization was faced with an outbreak of sylvatic plague and typhus. A situation the W.H.O. had, itself, created. They were then obliged to parachute live cats into Borneo to try again to control the rat population.

The lesson one should draw is that in many instances, our current problems are caused by prior solutions that were not thought out well enough. Short term planning is seldom effective long range. So it is with trying to cover our own sins. Until we have done it correctly, we only create more troubles for ourselves.

Whether it is a sin you have committed against God, or a problem between you and another brother or sister, "...let not the sun go down on your wrath." Eph 4:26