Caught Off Guard

After a pleasant walk, I rounded the corner of our street and headed towards home. Our faithful Australian Shepherd, Sophie, walked dutifully besides me. Gorgeous hues colored the sky at sunset, my favorite time of day for a stroll.

Without warning, a fierce jerk dragged my arm across my chest at lightning speed, and before my mind could grasp what was happening, I was dog-skiing through the neighbor's yard.

"Sophie! Noooo!" I bellowed, trying desperately to hold myself upright as Sophie raced forward with surprising force. On and on she pulled me, my forty-something body no match for her herding-doggie super-strength.

I glanced up and saw Sophie's goal: a freaked-out stray cat, running full steam ahead.

"No, Sophie, no!" Gripping her leash with both hands, I leaned all of my body weight backwards and tugged hard. I attempted to dig my heals into the grass, and was nearly catapulted forward as Sophie determined to herd that kitty.

I gathered up more slack, leaned back, and pulled even harder.

"Nooooo!"

Finally, Sophie stopped. The cat bounded over a small hill, out of sight. Breathing like a track star after a 100-yard dash, and nursing a nearly dislocated shoulder, I scolded our wayward dog as we headed back to the sidewalk.

While you may not have participated in a dog-skiing event recently (or ever...) , has your chain been yanked lately? Know this: our enemy schemes against us, hoping to catch us off guard and pull us mercilessly off of our paths.

It's up to us to resist him.

James 4:7 tells us, "So be subject to God. Resist the devil [stand firm against him], and he will flee from you." (Amplified Bible)

How do we resist the enemy?

• We determine to stay on our path no matter the cost.
  
• We pray for discernment to know when the enemy is jerking our chain.
  
• We ask the Lord for supernatural strength to resist when we're caught off guard.


• We just say "No!" to the enemy in holy determination.

Wishing you a successful walk on the narrow road,

Time for a Change. Or Not.

In what I can only attribute to delirium from excessive travel exhaustion, I decided to rearrange our family room furniture, the day after we arrived home from 12 hours of travel. Did I mention we went through 4 time changes in a 10-day period?

With nary a brain cell in full function mode, I convinced my strapping 19 year-old son to pitch in and help. Under great protest, he reluctantly ambled toward our suddenly large looking furniture. We struggled (well, I struggled) to carefully move heavy, dusty furniture across berber carpeting. I gasped when our brown, leather recliner revealed no less than four inches of accumulated pet hair and dust beneath it. Disgusting.

An hour and many aching muscles and sneezes later, our once cozy family room more resembled an akward, clunky disaster than the fresh, new look for which I'd hoped.

"Well, we're just going to have to put everything back." I said matter of factly, hands on my hips. Sometimes things just don't turn out the way we'd expect - or like.

Josh groaned. "That's code for I have to move all this stuff again."

His tone of voice tickled me, and I bent over in a deep belly laugh. Josh grinned. Spurred on by his quirky, resigned statement, we laughed for a solid 5 minutes.

After a crazy vacuuming session, the room was essentially spring cleaned...no more gunk beneath the sofa and chairs. Another muscle and sneeze fest and our furniture resumed its original position. I should have felt let down; yet even though the furniture layout had not changed, I felt oddly satisfied.

Do you feel like you're getting nowhere fast--as though your efforts are futile at best?

Sometimes everything we've labored for appears unsuccesful. At time it's tempting to believe that we're right back at square one. But God is dealing with hidden accumulation, sweeping the dark, unseen places. And even though it seems as though nothing at all has changed, He is removing layers of debris that we didn't even realize existed. Although things might look the same, God is at work. It's up to us to choose to trust Him. Even when our furniture winds up right where it started.