Perfect night for a mugging

This post is rated PG for violence and mild language

I've been thinking (and weblogging) lately about how the Bible teaches us to deal with sin and temptation and I heard a great true story recently that illustrates one method.

Picture Danny Bonaducci child star of the partridge family. Once a child star then rebellious youth turned philanthropist/professional fighter/radio personality. Can you picture him? Ok now picture him jogging through a bad part of a certain city. It's night and his girlfriend is sitting on a bench keeping track of his laps.

Three nefarious-looking individuals start following him. They seem intent on catching up with him.

Danny knew they meant him harm and he quickly considered his options. He could try to run away with his girlfriend but knew they would be overtaken. And when this happened he would be out of breath and unable to fight. Alternatively, he could try and bluff them and if it went badly at least he'd have some energy to fight.

He chose the latter.

Danny spun around and walked quickly and directly at his followers.

"Who wants what and when do you want it?", he demanded

Immediately two of the would-be assailants turned and fled. The one remaining man was brandishing a razor sharp carpet knife.

"Give me your wallet!", he demanded

"I can't give you my wallet man", Danny said. "My girlfriend is watching.

"I don't give a d*** about your girlfriend", the mugger swore.

"Now that's not nice", Danny said "and now we're gonna have to have words"

"Gimme your money", muggerdude repeated.

"Look there's guys that will use a knife and guys that won't and I can tell you're a guy that won't"

This statement obviously provoked the carpet knife carrying fellow because at that moment he struck out and sliced Danny cutting him on an angle from his shoulder and down across his chest. Danny spun away from him and he was sliced a second time down the back of his arm to his elbow. Blood immediately started to leak out of him all over as he turned to face his attacker.

Now you should know that Danny taught self defence classes. Included in the usual curriculum was how to disarm someone wielding a rubber knife. Apparently most muggers don't use rubber knives but thankfully the move worked just as well on a metal knife. So well in fact, that if someone had been standing nearby they would've been killed by the force that the knife left the surprised mugger's hands.

Bloody and shaking Danny glowered at the unarmed mugger, "I was going to beat you while you had a knife, imagine the horror show I'm going to unleash on you now"

Apparently that was all the mugger needed to hear because he turned heel and ran away from him as fast as possible.

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. - James 4:7

Don't feed the Aklak

Do you ever wonder why God doesn't just miraculously take away sin nature? Why does it have to be a process?

As Paul said, "For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me." - Romans 7:14-20

Why is this? Wouldn't it be better to pray and have the problem just taken away? I realise sometimes God does deliver us this way. He finds us sitting in some inescapable prison, the heavy chains fall to our feet, the gates creak open seemingly of their own accord and his Angel leads us to the street. We have only to follow him out the door and leave the place. But it's not always that way and I think I can guess why.

This past fall there has been a lot of contact between people and bears in BC. At one of my farm sites we had an interesting experience...

The farm sits in a spectacular fjord. With the coastal mountains of mainland BC rising sharply on either shore. Beautiful and dangerous, the shore near this farm is home to many different species of wildlife including the largest land predator Ursus Arctus Horribilis. Or more commonly known as the Grizzly Bear.

Grizzlies have a pretty varied diet which includes; berries, fish, deer, moose, other bears and when chance allows... humans. Fish are a favourite meal. Whenever fish die on the farm they are stored in containers on a a floating platform near the farm called a "mort float" they are kept there until a boat comes by to pick them up and take them to be turned into fish compost. Until that time their odour is not unlike the wild fish rotting in the creeks which bears are attracted to. Anyways this particular grizzly, a young male, showed up, swam out to the mort float and started trying to eat the dead fish.

I realised the staff that live on site would need some protection in case the grizzly decided to put people on his menu. When I was buying bear spray the salesman at the store advised me that one should wait until the bear was within 3m before unleashing the spray at him. "Any sooner and it wouldn't be effective, probably just make him mad". A happy thought. "Wait until he's 3m away" how hard could that be? Armed thus with pepper spray and bear bangers my staff would drive out in a boat and scare him off each time he came out to the mort float.

I called conservation hoping they would swoop in like a Grizzly SWAT team, dart the bear, wrap him up and ship him into some comfy valley deep in the wilds of BC far from me and my crew.

"No way am I sending any of my officers in there", I was told, "it's too dangerous" and apparently if they were to move the bear he'll either get eaten by a bigger Grizzly or die without finding a place to hole up for the winter.

We were on our own.

Remove the morts, lock up the feed shed and sleep with bear spray on your night stand was pretty much our action plan. Okay, that's the sarcastic version. Truth is, we were told to remove every possible attractant and steer clear of the bear at all costs. If there was an immediate danger to anyone we were to call the hotline and they would come and relocate the bear but it would likely mean the end for the bear.

At one point I had the privilege of seeing this bear up close and personal. Before you think I'm some gallant "grizzly man" I was in a boat with roughly 7m of water between myself and the bear. I will admit that even from that relatively safe vantage point I was extremely intimidated by the beast. He was trying to open a mort container and the way he moved was aggressive, almost angry. I yelled at him and he looked coolly up at me. I imagined that I probably looked like a glazed turkey sitting at the controls of my boat. A chill went through me as I imagined what would happen if my engine died and the afternoon breeze gently pushed my boat up to the float he was on. I decided to move my boat around behind him. This put me downwind of him and out of his sight. He didn't like not being able see what I was doing and jumped into the water and swam to shore with me following him.

(Here's a picture I drew, notice the long teeth and angry eyes)

We removed everything that could possibly interest the bear including the mort containers and locked down everything else. He returned one more day and tried to get into one of the feed containers and then went away, probably to sleep for the winter.

Would it have been better if the CO's had come out and hustled him away? Then we wouldn't have to do anything. Or is it better that we had to roll up our sleeves and make some improvements and get rid of the things that were attracting him?

If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell. - Matthew 5:29-30

Mea maxima culpa

Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered
Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit.
When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Selah
Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD" and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah - Psalm 32:1-5













Here's a little insight into a typical Sunday morning in the life of me..

0700 - Alarm rings. Knock over empty glass, glasses and wristwatch before finally finding the snooze. The goal here is to silence the alarm BEFORE it finally gives up trying to wake me.

0715 - Second alarm. Hit the snooze again. Easy to find it now that the bedside table is cleared off.

0900 - Get out of bed and make coffee.

0915 - Skip breakfast, drink coffee and post self-righteous blog.

1010 - Get ready for church, polish the outside of my coffee cup, yell at kids for destroying the house and not caring.

1030 - Leave late, grip the steering wheel tightly while listening to loud music. Part way to church turn off the music, yell at kids some more to be quiet and calm down. Did someone bring a tiger or is that my stomach growling?

1045 - Teach Sunday school, take great care to pretend to be a good Dad.

11ish - Awkward confession of hypocrisy to 7 bored looking 5 - 12 year old children. Bust into a mini sermon on forgiveness and righteousness. "Go ahead and colour a picture on the back of your handout while I talk kids." Feel better, hot chocolate and peanut free cookies for everyone. Collect the drawings, notice that my kids have drawn pictures of what looks curiously like me being killed in various painful and creative ways. Is that my spleen hanging out there? Wow, I can really appreciate your use of light and shadow (ok I made that bit up, but I wouldn't blame them if they did).

1130ish - Start video late. 15minutes later shut off the video before it's over, kids look unimpressed. "See you next week kids, maybe I'll share with you how I'm letting my career get in the way of spending quality time with my children... bring a friend".

Lawbreakers

I've heard some believers describe trying to obey God’s rules as “legalism”. This is funny and sad. True legalism is believing you can obtain salvation by following God’s laws. If this was possible Jesus Christ died for nothing. (Galatians 2:20-21) Clearly, we are saved by His righteousness not our own. But does that mean we ignore God’s laws? Acting as though we don’t have to follow laws is lawlessness and Jesus is pretty clear that lawless people will not enter his Kingdom (Matt 7:21-23).

Say a certain believer decides to kill someone. Maybe a neighbour that is really, super annoying. You might confront him and say, “Brother you can’t kill your annoying neighbour the Bible says ‘Thou shalt not kill’” and then this individual turns to you smugly and says “that’s legalism, we’re under grace” in a sort of patronizing hiss. Before you turn around with your tail between your legs feeling like you just said something really stupid. You might want to remind said individual that Jesus did not come to do away with the law but to fulfill it and wilfully sinning is to trample Him underfoot (Hebrews 10:26-29). I’m pretty sure being “under grace” doesn’t mean we can go around whacking our neighbours and sending them for a dirt nap in our backyard.

I certainly don't claim to understand it all. I don't know why we don't have to avoid unclean food or wear four tassels on our clothes anymore but I dislike hearing people using legalism as a crutch for sin. The bottom line is of course you can’t earn salvation by following laws, you receive it through faith (Romans 4:20-25) and if you have faith you will show it by your works and the fruit you bear.

“But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?" - Luke 6:46

Fearfully

We are a fearful people. People who fear animals, heights, closed spaces or open spaces. People who fear dates, numbers, even clowns (and not just evil clowns).

And you are not to fear what they fear or be in dread of it. "It is the LORD of hosts whom you should regard as holy. And He shall be your fear, And He shall be your dread. - Isaiah 8:12b-13

A few years ago if you asked me what my biggest fears were I probably would have said, (In no particular order);

Getting old, failing in my career and getting locked in a public washroom.

That last one might sound funny to the uninformed but imagine if you will...

You are travelling away from home and you wheel into some dirty rest stop looking for a washroom. You must temporarily suspend basic hygiene as you enter this particular "wash"room.

"Get in, be quick, touch nothing and get out", you tell yourself.

You turn to leave and try to turn the handle. It won't unlock. Worried now, you look down at the handle and try again... nothing. Panic races up from your heart and begins to pound in your ears. You throw caution to the wind and discard the piece of paper towel that you were using to cover the door knob. Restraint and your peripheral vision fades as you grab it with both hands and give it a mighty effort. The knob comes off in your hands. Your worst fear has happened. Your pride will soon join biosecurity lying on the stained tiles.

The locals will talk for many days afterwards about the proud tourist who rolled into their dusty town. Full of pride when he stepped out of his minivan. Reduced to pounding like a child on the door of the restroom.

Happily I'm not afraid of these things anymore. It's funny the things that we fear, things that cannot significantly alter our lives. Often we're afraid of everything but God. We like to say He's our best friend and I agree there is no God like Him who loves us and would give His Son for us. But I don't think when I come face to face with Him that my first thought will be "Hi God, you're my best buddy". The God who has power over my body, soul and spirit. Power to heal and save and power to utterly destroy.

It truly is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.