Ticks & Sins

The summer reminds me of a season when all my spare time was spent in the out-of-doors. My mother started the whole thing by not allowing her children to spend but very little time in the house, and then it had to be pouring down rain or a howling blizzard in progress. I did Boy Scouts and camping for many years and family camping into the mid 70’s. Then it seems the whole world wanted to get in on the fun and it wasn’t fun anymore. The serenity and solitude was lost in the sea of people crowding in all around our campsites with noise and drunken excessive expletive exploits that neither spouse nor children need be exposed to, so ended the tent weekends. Of course some trips were cut short due to weather, but more likely, accident of some sort. One such ER trip was for a friend who hooked his water-ski in the shallows while gliding into shore, at about a hundred mile an hour, landing on the beach, dislocating his shoulder and cracking his collarbone. Another run was needed when my son ran through an unmarked sand-covered fire-pit being used to bake potatoes and cook something else. Anyway, the bottom of his bare feet got cooked pretty badly. Some quick thinking with a bucket and some ice stopped the burning on our journey to the ER. All was well in a couple of weeks. Bugs and fishing hooks, cuts and burns were always a part of camping and all-in-all still one of life’s better experiences. My son and one of his son’s are active in Scouting and enjoy their regular encounters with nature. In fact his whole family regularly gets out-of-doors.

[Luke 18:9-14] Ever had a tick on you? Ticks are small blood sucking mites. They spend a good bit of time just waiting in bushes, grass and woods for a victim – you! Once you happen by, they jump on and attempt to quickly crawl to a protected spot on your body. Then they sink their mouth parts into your flesh and begin to feed on life blood. If undetected, a tick will fill itself full and then drop off, often leaving its host inoculated with some sort of harmful or debilitating disease such as spotted fever, relapsing fever, Lyme disease, tularemia, encephalitis or rickets. The tick is a lot like many kinds of sin:  * It may get on you when it is small and almost undetectable. * It doesn’t demand much sacrifice, but it may cause a little irritation. * Once embedded, it’s hard to get off. * It gets bigger the longer it stays on you. * It can leave you very seriously ill. Some advice for dealing with ticks and sins: * DON’T WALK IN PLACES THAT ARE INFESTED. “Be very careful then how you live - not as unwise, but as wise...” (Ephesians 5:15). * EXAMINE YOURSELF DAILY. “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you – unless, of course, you fail the test?” (2 Corinthians 13:5). * HAVE OTHERS EXAMINE YOU, AND HELP EXAMINE THEM TOO. “See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘Today’, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness” (Hebrews 3:12-13). * IF ONE GETS ON YOU, GET IT OFF IMMEDIATELY. “Therefore confess your sins to each another and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” (James 5:16). * IF YOU REALIZE YOU ARE GETTING SICK, SEE THE DOCTOR. Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:31-32). Thank-You Jesus!