The Skunks

John and I were reminiscing the other night about things in our past. He was sharing with me about how his dad would go out after work and hunt fur bearing animals. Then he could sell their furs to make a little money to feed the family. Their old dog, Bernie, would circle the animals until John's dad could get there with his gun. John said he could always tell when his dad had gotten home because he would smell like a skunk. That reminded me of a story I heard.

The story is told of a mother who came home from shopping to find five of her children sitting quietly in a circle. When she looked inside the circle she saw they had five young skunks they had found outside. Without thinking, she yelled, “run children, run!” They did, but not before each child grabbed a skunk to take with them. We are often like those children. When faced with the giants of life, we panic and make a mess out of things. We want to drag our giants with us; whining and complaining all the way, instead of allowing God to defeat them.

A Pastor once said of Christians, "They want to circle the wagons at the church building and hold off the devil until Jesus comes back. That is not God’s plan!" We have gotten so comfortable in our lives; so use to the giants of fear and worry, etc., we don't want to follow God's leading and defeat those giants with His help.

God has plans for each of us. He hasn't promised there won't be difficulties as we travel our respective paths, but He has promised He will go before us and defeat our giants.
Just like the odor that clung to John's dad, the effects of sin can cling to a person long after the sin is committed. And, we become just like his dad, who was so use to the skunk smell, he thought nothing of it. We become accustomed to our sin.

"Since we have such a huge crowd of men of faith watching us from the grandstands, let us strip off anything that slows us down or holds us back, and especially those sins that wrap themselves so tightly around our feet and trip us up; and let us run with patience the particular race that God has set before us. Keep your eyes on Jesus, our leader and instructor. He was willing to die a shameful death on the cross because of the joy he knew would be his afterwards; and now he sits in the place of honor by the throne of God." Hebrews 12:1-2 (TLB)