Experience and observation with the Shanty Maid

I know that they are everywhere. But where everywhere is the problem, and a little diversion from the path I walked, made me walk right into one.
I was walking outside across the farmyard the other day checking on the animals. I decided to divert from my present path and take another to check on the dogs. Suddenly, in the corner of my eye I saw something flip up then I felt it: the pain. Sharp, striking pain ran from the bottom of my left foot all the way up to my knee.
I stopped dead in my tracks and nearly fell to the ground as I raised my foot painfully. Protruding from my foot was a ‘Devils Claw’. It had it’s hook embedded deep into my foot.
I removed my shoe, grabbed the ‘Devils claw’, took several deep breathes then removed it as quickly as I could. After I had successfully removed it, blood trickled from my foot and pain throbbed with the blood. I threw the ‘claw’ on the roof of the chicken house so no one else would step on it, then I hobbled over the water faucet where I rinsed my bloody and throbbing foot with the cool refreshing well water.
Later it occurred to me how we have to deal with stuff like this in our spiritual lives every single day. The Devil is out to get us, because he hates God and what God made, and he knows he is going to loose the battle with God. He wants to drag us to hell with him. So everyday, he fights us. He sets traps all alongside God’s highway in life. He wants us SO BAD. Sometimes though, the really horrible traps, those ‘Devils Claws’ that you don’t see until it’s to late, are accompanied with really big life decisions.
You’ll be walking along in life, minding your own business when you suddenly see a fork in the road. You consider your options and you pray. You feel you should go down this one road, but the other road looks SO much better. Or maybe you see something that needs doing down that road and nobody is doing it. Or maybe you hear a cry for help coming down that road. Perhaps your friend going down that road, or has been down that road and they are doing OK on it. Whatever it is, you decide to take that road. You might be cautious at first, but nothing seems wrong so you relax. Suddenly it comes upon you without any warning. You feel the sharp pain and realize the Devil has his claw in you.
WHA?!?! How did that happen? I was sure that this was the right way!!! I mean, I prayed about it. I didn’t get a yea or a nay. What went wrong??
Well, many things could have gone wrong, but mostly one thing. You prayed, but did you listen? Did you take the time out to listen? Often times we go on through life at the fastest speed we can manage. When we come to a fork in the road, we are afraid to pause and listen to the Call. Maybe we are afraid that we might miss something, afraid to take time out from the world and people around us just to listen. Maybe people are saying we are going to slow. Maybe we think we already know the way and pausing will just slow us down. Maybe we are just waiting for God to magically appear and show us the way Himself. Whatever the reason, it’s not really a good reason. We should ALWAYS listen. Listening could save our life. We should always take the time out to listen to that still small voice that calls.
Then, painfully, we have to pull that claw out of us. That is the most painful part. Maybe it’s the part when you realize that you can’t follow your friend. Maybe its when you realize you were to busy for God. Either way, the most painful part of it is way down deep in there when you realize that you didn’t listen to God and that it is your own fault that you are hurt…no one else’s…
And the blood that follows is also painful…That is the healing process.
Thankfully, when we get hooked in one of the Devil’s claws or caught in one of his traps we can repent and return to where God wants us. He will bathe and ease our wounds in His cool refreshing water of forgiveness.
That is the best part of it all!