Biblical Bug Spray

Last month somewhere in my backyard, a mosquito died a happy little bugger after gorging on a 13-course breakfast of A- blood he extracted from my legs. I was probably his last meal—I can hope, can’t I?
   For several days, pink dots of calamine lotion dotted my legs from ankle to thigh. I looked like Madame Mim during her duel with Merlin in “Sword in the Stone.” Go ahead, laugh; it is funny. I had the power to refuse this bug his breakfast, so why didn’t I?

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Remember when?

There was a time in my life when, like Narnia frozen in 100 years of winter, my life felt shrouded in perpetual darkness. We've all been there, that place where life is in crisis mode and our prayers bounce back from the ceiling. We wonder, "Why is this happening to me?" and "When is it going to end?"  
   Perhaps you even waiver in your faith. I did. It took nearly ten years before the darkness melted away. I was tempted many times to turn away from God, but the thought of eternity in hell prodded me to hold on. My faith in God had taken a terrible beating. I often tempered my prayers with "God, help my unbelief" (see Mark 9:24).
   Like King David, when God seems more distant than the stars, we have to encourage ourselves through the dry and difficult times. But how do we do that?

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doing a spiritual bench press

Huff ‘n puff ‘n huff ‘n puff.

I'm not doing my best big, bad wolf impression. I'm just walking up the hill.

My workouts these days are a cinch compared to the grueling physical exercise I had in Marine Corps boot camp.

Without a drill instructor yelling in my ear, it’s hard to motivate myself to get out there and do it. I don’t like to exercise, but I know if I don’t, my muscles will lose their strength and ability to do what God designed them to do.

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falling prey

This morning was a first — a sharp-shinned hawk perched on a large, low branch of the locust bean tree that grows barely 15 feet from my patio. The weather was cool and cloudy and I found it odd to see such a predator in the middle of the city.

The usual backyard birds were conspicuously absent. Maybe they knew enough to stay away from this ruffian, but one tiny finch fluttered nearby. The hawk showed no apparent interest. Soon the finch came within a few inches of the hawk and in a strike as quick as lightening the hawk captured that poor tiny finch in its claws.

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