I took some time to write up a simple story today that for me, at least, helped me better understand and illustrate an important truth. I’ll read it then make a few comments.
*****
A father and son were getting ready to settle into a weekend together. This was their first night in their newly remodeled cabin. It was a cozy looking place with the woods coming right up to the back door while the front door opened up to a sandy beach and the lake.
They had bought it for a song but it came with a lot of work. Bears had managed to get in followed by some other wildlife and had done some serious damage.
“Dad, how come you didn’t fix this door?” the boy asked. He was referring to the heavy wooden front door that upon being opened made such a creaking noise that you almost wanted to cover your ears.
“I’ll tell you why,” his dad replied with a smile. “Here’s what the owner told me. He said, ‘Let me tell you how I dealt with the bears. I didn’t want to do any killing so I got myself a paintball marker gun. Whenever I heard them at the back door, I grabbed my gun and went out the front door, around to the back and opened fire. That got them going.’”
“But here’s the funny part”, the dad added. “He told me that upon opening the front door, of course, it made that terrible creaking sound. He said, “those smart bears soon got it figured out. When they heard that creaking sound, they’d take off before I could even get out the door! So whenever I heard them messing around at the back door, soon that’s all I had to do — walk over and open this door.”
The boy grinned. “That’s a good plan, dad. We could probably …” He stopped mid sentence. There was a rustling and scrapping sound at back door. The Father and son locked eyes. Bears!
The son went straight to the front door. He slowly opened it. It creaked something terrible. In short order, the scrapping and rustling stopped.
The boy rushed to the back window.
“Sure enough, dad! It was a bear! He’s bookin’ it outta here!”
*****
When the apostle Paul wrote, “live by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh.” (Galatians 5:16) it seems to boil down to dealing with our temptations indirectly. That is to say, when a tempting thought-suggestion scrapes on the back door of our mind, we turn instead to the front door. And it’s in the very act of attending to the Holy Spirit’s desires, that the desires of the flesh are, in effect, scared off.
