Reacting to life's sandburs

Preparing to go to the Assistance Dogs facility and work with dogs for two or three hours, I grabbed up a lightweight acrylic overshirt. That would be plenty of warmth.

As I drove, I began settling into the seat and getting comfortable. But, wait! What was pricking my back? I squirmed a bit (well, quite a bit!) in an effort to get rid of the sticky problem.

After my squirming, the pricking was tolerable - but definitely not comfortable! There was a place down the road a few miles where I could safely pull off and research my discomfort.

There, I removed the lightweight jacket and began examining it for the source of my discomfort. I looked on the inside but found nothing. I was about to put it back on but thought to look on the outside of the shirt.

There it was! A sandbur!

I carefully removed the bur and threw it to the ground to seed someone else's property, put the jacket back on and continued on in comfort.

Such a little thing to cause so much discomfort! Not only was it small, barely the size of a small pea, but it was sticking me through two layers of clothing. And it hurt!

This led me to think about the really little things that can get in the way of Christian life - both my own and my neighbors' - when those little things work their way into my life and start sticking me!

Am I as sensitive to those stickings as I was to the sandbur? Am I as quick to rectify the problem and squelch it at its source? Or do I let it go on sticking me, causing me to be uncomfortable and, thus, to be a poor witness of Jesus' love to others?

It really didn't take long to take off the jacket, find the sandbur, remove it, throw it away and put the jacket back on. And in that short time I went from being at a comfort level of "tolerable" to "comfortable".

Now, I think the problem with the burs in our Christian lives lies in the fact that we just do a lot of squirming to find a tolerable level of comfort. Then, we convince ourselves "this is as good as it gets" and go on with a compromised level Christian testimony.

It affects not only our testimony to others but also our comfort level within ourselves.

Leave that bur in place long enough and the soul will do just as the physical body does with similar intrusions - it will build a wall around the area and make dealing with it much more difficult because once that wall is in place we can forget how much it hurt in the first place. We simply don't notice it any more. Then, God must get our attention again, make us sensitive once more to His calling.

Once we give our "sandbur" to God, He will provide both the courage and the means to deal with that bur so our lives may once more be useable in His kingdom.

It may have been similar thinking that led King David to write, "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and led me in the way everlasting." (Ps. 139: 23, 24)