Braxton is my dog from college. My parents gave him to me for Christmas several years ago and I brought him to Greensboro to live in my apartment with me. I'll never forget the vet telling me that he was a high energy dog and he would need to be walked every day, and preferably learn a game, such as fetch, to expend his endless energy. At this time he was just a puppy, and as a proud parent I went home with the brochures on teaching dogs fetch and I began my training. If you know Braxton now, you know that I was a very successful dog trainer. It's all Braxton does, it's all he thinks about. I'm working on segueing into another topic here, something not so lighthearted so hear me out. Anyway, we've had an ongoing joke with Braxton since I've been visiting. He pretty much follows my Mom around with this stick and lays it at her feet. She gets out of bed and stubs her foot on the sharp end of the stick, curses Braxton and throws it. She steps down out of her chair and her foot lands right on top of the stick Braxton has strategically placed in front of her. Only hours later, she sits down in the chair and pulls her knee up to her chest. She goes to sit down all the way and of course her leg comes down on this stick. Ahh! It's like she can't get away from this crazy dog (ok, none of us can get away). She just told me that as she was sleeping last night she rolled over to tell Dave goodnight and as she rolled back over, Braxton and his crazy panting face had placed his porcupine squeaky toy right where she lays and she ended up rolling on top of it.
It's makes me laugh every time, but the truth is, I began to see a pattern here. Braxton puts the stick where he thinks you'll be next, based on where you've been, he tries to tempt you into throwing it, because he won't go away until you do. Furthermore, our family has a golden rule: "don't throw the stick for Braxton or you'll be doing it all night." Once Braxton knows you'll grab that stick and throw it, he targets you. He comes back over and over because you caved here, there is a likely chance you'll cave again. Last night Mick grabbed the stick, threw her arm forward and then backwards and let the stick fly behind her. "I cheat the system now" she laughed, and sure enough, Braxton was running around in front of Mick looking for the stick she threw. When he can't find it, he's quick to find another that looks just like it. It's exhausting resisting Braxton.
I love Braxton, and Braxton is not Satan (although my Mom probably disagrees with this statement) but isn't that just how Satan works. He meets us where we're at, puts traps right under our feet, and we're too busy to even look for them. The same traps ensnare us over and over. It's disgusting. Furthermore, we find ways to cheat the system. To not acknowledge the attack we must walk the other way, or simply bury our head under a pillow. I do that mostly, fail to resist, which is what Paul instructs us to do! I have the power to tell that fear to leave, but I let it fall on me because I think I might be foolish if I speak out loud,"Go!" What in the world?
I hate Satan every day, I hate this world (not the people..) most of the time. I especially feel sorrowful today because a young girl was murdered in Charlotte. I did not know her, although I have several friends in common with her on facebook. She is 23, and so am I. It is so tragic to me that her life was cut so short. As far as I know she left with a man from a bar and he killed her. His mugshot haunts me because I told my Mom, he looks like a normal guy! I wonder why God made me so sensitive, how am I supposed to live in this world? Of course, I cling to Him and His promises, but when the noises of the world choke out that small voice, when the media bombards me with murder mystery after murder mystery (Dave watches back to back "dateline," ugh) I wonder how I am supposed to cope. Geeze, I don't want to even think about me- what about these poor parents that just lost their daughter? Her Dad was the police chief of Concord, you sort of feel like those kind of families should be immune to these terrible upsets, because they work in law. But none of us are safe. We just have to trust, have faith, obey, and pray and not fall into these traps. Paul was telling me about this horrible serial rapist that murdered all of these girls and apparently Paul saw a special on him on tv where he was interviewed. He said it all started with a simple addiction to pornography and he became obsessed with controlling women.
That's the thing with these traps, eventually we just latch on because they keep coming up to us and we're too lazy, too spiritually stagnant, too beaten down to do anything about it. I'm trying to think what could maybe stall these traps, and I can only come up with one thing: evangelism. Spreading the love of God, planting seeds. Those of us who believe in God have been shaped by our culture to believe that if we utter the name "Jesus" we're radical, judgmental, self-righteous, and stuck up. Maybe we're going about this all wrong if that is the impression. It all comes down to love, the antidote to fear. It's about all of us holding the keys to squash these traps, to stand in the gap for others, to fight for them. I have the answer to solve any addiction, any obsession, any fear, to heal disease and I keep my lips sealed. That is a trap in itself. I'm not in any sort of mood to try to convince a murderer he can make it into heaven, I'd rather not see him there nor do I think he deserves it, but that's why I'm not God. Anyway, we must remember that Paul, who wrote a good portion of the New Testament, murdered Christians before he was Paul. An encounter with the living God can change anyone. Now if I could just get to a place where I'm brave enough to share those keys I have. Fear has had my number for far too long. How about you?
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