Pastoral Ponderings—Trapped!
Before the summer is too far gone, I’ve to share these ponderings with the attached picture of the racoons in the dumpster. Many of you may have seen this coon-sized conundrum before–some more than once, as it’s not too uncommon—racoons who follow their noses and somehow get stuck in the dumpster. “Silly racoon!” we might think, “How could you get yourself in such a fix?”
The silly beasties just follow their noses without much thought about where it might get them until it’s too late. But how often do we do the same kind of thing—likely not into a dumpster—but just following our noses or whatever “feels right,” without thinking too much about it, until we find ourselves just as stuck in a bad place. Maybe we’re not that much smarter than a racoon after all!
Most of us have heard more than enough about where temptation can lead us. Whether it is into some kind of trouble, or, when we give into the temptation to start our own “poor lil’ ol’ me” party– “Nobody knows, the trouble I seen, nobody knows my sorrows…” rather than listening to God’s wisdom through the scriptures. If we keep busy loving our neighbors, do we have time to get ourselves into trouble, or for our own pity party? If we follow scriptural guidance to focus on the good stuff, where’s the pity party to come from? Or if with St. Paul we practice “I’ve learned to be content in all circumstances” (written while he was in prison, by the way), and to “give thanks in all circumstances,” isn’t that like “pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile, smile, smile…”?
That racoon did NOT look very happy, stuck it the dumpster. I don’t know about you, but I generally don’t like getting stuck at all. So even if we’re not smart enough to follow the wisdom of the Bible, maybe we can learn a lesson or two from silly racoons, stuck in a dumpster!
Follow Jesus rather than your nose! Pastor Jim