Day 70

 

Indoor Hunting Season

 

Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 

 

1 Peter 5:8

 

I got the phone call. An elderly man my son worked for, mowing his lawn, had a squirrel in his house and wanted someone with a BB gun to dispatch the squirrel. The man had plenty of guns in his home but didn't feel like blowing a hole in his floor with a shot gun so a BB gun was needed.

He wasn't interested in catch and release because multiple squirrels had been in his attic keeping him awake at night. As anyone who has ever had a squirrel problem knows, squirrels are just rats with a bushy tail and good PR. My son and I had been over at his house before, at his request, to try and chase squirrels out of his attic. He wanted to arm us both with shot guns and get the squirrels caught in a cross fire as they exited the attic. I may have been raised in the city and relatively inexperienced at country living but getting squirrels in a cross fire seemed more dangerous to humans than to squirrels. So the plan was altered to my son waiting outside at the squirrels exit point with a shot gun while I chased the squirrels out of the attic. I was smart enough to nix the cross fire idea but must have used up my quota of clear thinking when I willingly participated in the man's idea to chase the squirrels out of the attic. To get the squirrels out of the attic I was to crawl up in the attic and set off some firecrackers. The end result of that was that I had a ringing in my ears for 2 days and no squirrels left the attic.

But now there was a squirrel in the man's bedroom, so Ethan and I loaded up the BB gun to do a little indoor squirrel hunting. I was hoping indoor squirrel hunting season was year round. We arrived to find the squirrel cornered in a corner (where else?) behind a trash can.

My son placed the BB gun as close to the squirrel as possible, perhaps an inch away, and pulled the trigger. It was then we discovered this was no ordinary squirrel but a rare Transylvanian vampire squirrel. One shot at close range just enraged the squirrel. We needed a silver BB or holy water to combat this fiend.

The squirrel raced around the room like it's tail was on fire. It ran between my legs with Ethan shooting BB after BB at it and me dancing like I was in a cartoon western with BBs pinging around my feet. Finally the squirrel ran into the master closet, went up some coats and hid behind a suitcase on a shelf that was about eye level with me. I armed myself with a broom and instructed my son to shoot the squirrel as I moved the suitcase out of the way so he could get a clear shot.

I moved the suit case out of the way with the broom handle and suddenly the little vampire launched himself right at my face. His viscous little claws were outstretched ready to latch on to my face and his little razor sharp vampire teeth poised to sink into my flesh.

My heart stopped beating in fear. A quick move of my head and he flew right past my ear, right over my shoulder and chased my son out of that walk in closet. Once my heart started beating again it was at a highly accelerated rate.

I have never been attacked by a wild (or tame) lion before and I hope that I never will be. A crazed vampire squirrel was enough to scare the patoobies  out of me. Peter says the devil is roaming around like a lion waiting for someone to devour. I, for one, am going to follow Peter's advice and be alert. I'm not sure my heart could take a lion attack.

For the squeamish who may be reading this I will spare you the details of the squirrel's demise. No squirrel was going to make a monkey out of me. We killed him 3 times. With vampire squirrels you err on the side of caution.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read 1 Peter 5:8-11

• Peter warns us to be self-controlled. Does losing self-control make you more susceptible to Stan's attacks?
• How are we to resist the devil?
• What happens to us before we are made stronger?

Day 69

 

Reliability

 

Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work.

 

Acts 15:37-38

 

I read about a lady in London, England that had a cleaning business. She put an ad in the paper looking for workers and asked that only "hardworking" and reliable people apply. A government agency made her change the ad. The agency said the ad discriminated against those who were unreliable.

When Paul and Barnabas were getting ready for their second missionary journey they had a disagreement over the personnel to go on the trip. Barnabas wanted John Mark to go with them but Paul thought he was unreliable. He thought that because John Mark had quit and gone home during their first missionary trip. The missionary trips were hard and often times dangerous and Paul wanted someone he could count on. So Paul took Silas with him and then added Timothy early on in the trip. Then, right before entering Europe, Paul added another worker as Luke joined them. Silas, Timothy and Luke proved themselves to be very reliable and useful.

Barnabas did take John Mark with him and they went on their own missionary journey to the island of Cyprus. Twelve years after Paul had dismissed John Mark as being unreliable he was once again in Paul's good graces and helping Paul while he was imprisoned in Rome (Colossians 4:10). Five years after that Paul is in Rome, in prison again and writes Timothy, "Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry." (2 Timothy 4:11) Somewhere along the way Mark had figured out how to be reliable.

What about you? Have you figured out how to be reliable and useful for ministry? Can God depend on you?

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read Acts 13:13

• Is any indication given of a good reason for John Mark to leave Paul and Barnabas?

Read Philemon 24

• What does Paul call John Mark?

 



 

 

Day 68

 

Prayer and Change

 

Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me. "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

 

2 Corinthians 12:9

 

 

Ethan bought his first guitar with his own money. He was a freshman in High School and played the trumpet and piano and he wanted to try the guitar.

He had never had a lesson but it became apparent over a short period of time that he was going to be good at it. We had to encourage him to practice the piano or trumpet but we never had to encourage him to play the guitar. We did have to tell him to stop playing sometimes because it was time to go to bed. So, he quickly outgrew his beginner guitar.

He talked to some older, experienced guitar players who told him he needed to buy a Taylor guitar. He found one on e-bay, a pretty nice one that brand new would have cost about $2,000.00, but being used was about half that. He made a lot more money mowing lawns than the $2.50 per lawn that I had made when I was his age but it was still a lot of money for him to come up with. So I told him I would go halves with him. If he wanted a guitar so badly he would have to mow a lot of grass for some folks, save his money and not spend it on other things, and then I would help. And that is what happened.

I think prayer works that way some times. We pray and pray and ask God for things and he is waiting for us to do our part. He wants to do things for us but it might require some change on our part. We may be asking for some help in a relationship or with our kids and God is ready to work on the other person for us but is waiting for us to make the changes we need to make.

Paul had a "thorn in the flesh" that he wanted to be done with. We don't know what it was for certain but that detail is not really important. What is important is that God wanted to do something for Paul that wasn't exactly what Paul wanted. Paul had to come to understand what was required for him to receive what God had planned to give was for him to change his request and accept the limitation of having the thorn. When Paul made his adjustment he was then able to receive the grace and power God had planned to give.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

• Who was the author of Paul's thorn in the flesh?
• What was God using the thorn in the flesh for in Paul's life?
• How did Paul become comfortable with having this weakness?