I had just settled into the rhythm of walking my loops for exercise this morning when a couple of large aggressive flies began circling my head and following me every step I took!
They followed me around the entire loop as I walked, circling my head, dive-bombing me, landing in my hair, flying into my face, landing on my shoulders, etc …
They wouldn’t stop.
They kept following me … around and around every loop. Landing in my hair. Flying into my face. Circling my head. They were driving me crazy!
I started wildly flailing my arms to try to get them to go away. For several loops I wildly flailed my arms the whole way. But that only resulted in wearing me out. My strength was being depleted … and it wasn’t accomplishing anything anyway.
The large aggressive flies kept right on dive-bombing and harassing me!
I picked up a stick … and started wildly waving the stick around my head as I walked. This did nothing to deter the flies either. They kept right on circling my head, dive-bombing, and landing in my hair.
I considered my options. I could go inside and stop walking loops for exercise. But I really needed to get some exercise. I hadn’t been able to walk all last week, and I really wanted to walk my loops for exercise. Besides, it was going to heat up later in the day and if I was going to walk I needed to walk now while it was still cool.
I couldn’t just give up.
Another option was to go inside, get my electric mosquito zapper … and engage in the fight.
That is what I decided to do.
I went inside and came back out armed with my electric mosquito zapper! It wasn’t even a full minute and the flies were dive-bombing me!
I stopped … pressed the button to activate my electric mosquito zapper … and began waving my electric mosquito zapper around my head.
“ZAP!!”
That did the trick.
I wasn’t harassed any more the rest of the morning as I walked loops. And just for caution, I carried my “zapper” with me the rest of the time.
In pondering Jesus’s words (from two blog posts ago) about how he is sending his followers out into a world which is fiercely opposed (as wolves) to him and his ways … I can’t help but think it’s similar to trying to “walk loops through life” while being harassed with critics and opposers “circling around our heads,” “dive-bombing,” “landing in our hair,” “getting all up in our face,” and driving us crazy!
All we want to do is just “walk our loops in peace” … but they just won’t leave us alone! They won’t quit. They won’t stop.
I had some options as I walked my loops this morning. So too, when it comes to “walking through life” we likewise have some options.
Option #1 – We can walk through life “flailing our arms” (so to speak) trying to get the critics and opposers to stop; hoping they will go away and leave us alone.
If we truly take a stand for Jesus Christ – if we truly take a stand for truth and justice and what is right – then the critics and the opposers won’t go away and leave us alone.
Just like flailing my arms didn’t do anything other than deplete me of my own strength (which I needed for my journey of walking loops) … so also in the same way, “flailing our arms” (so to speak) to try to respond to critics and the opposers won’t do anything other than deplete us of our own strength which we need for “walking” our life’s journey.
Option #2 – We can “pick up a stick” and “flail the stick” (so to speak) at the critics as we try to walk our life’s path. But just like my own flailing a stick at the dive-bombing, harassing flies did nothing to deter them, so also “flailing a proverbial stick” at critics and opposers will do nothing to deter them.
Option #3 – We can give up. We can let the critics and the opposers win and we can just give up and “go inside.”
Option #4 – We can “arm ourselves” and engage in the fight. When the attacks come, circling our head, dive-bombing, landing in our hair, getting all up in our face, and driving us crazy! … we take a stand … and we wield our weapon of the Word of God!
“The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” – 2 Corinthians 10:4-5
We don’t give up and stop walking the path Jesus Christ has commissioned us to walk. We keep going. We press forward.
And we do so carrying our “electric mosquito zapper” and engaging in the fight!
