Living Sacrifices or Fluttering Roaches

Not that I'm into killing God's creatures, but when they're in my house, I do feel that it's my prerogative if not obligation to escort them out by whatever means I choose. This morning it happened to be with a good swat.

I was having the most wonderful devotional time with the Lord. Sometimes it's just better than others, and this morning it was GOOD! The kind where God's presence is so real and tears are washing the eyes as the Word is washing the soul. And then I saw it, a very large and ugly roach, strolling (as if it owned the place) behind my St. Francis of Assissi! So using a book that was close by, I squashed it and then proceeded to pick it up with a fly swatter. (I'd been using the personal pronoun "him," but that gave it personality, so I changed "him" to "it." If nothing else, it makes me feel a little better about killing the thing.) Now don't go and ask me why I didn't use the swatter to kill the thing in the first place, because I just didn't. At the moment, it seemed the book was the best tool. Well, when I got it up on the swatter pad, the thing began to "flutter," and then it fell off and lay dead. I picked it up again, it fluttered, fell off, and lay dead. This must have happened a dozen times. It'd be as dead as a doornail, I'd pick it up, it'd flutter, and jump off the the swatter. Finally, I hit it about 3 times and from there on out it stayed where I put it.

So why in the world would I post a blog about killing a roach? Have you ever tried to lay that thing down that has gotten between you and God? I believe Paul calls it in Romans a "living sacrifice." Well, as my friend Vicki always says, "Living sacrifices have a way of crawling off the altar," or according to my most recent revelation: "Living roaches have a way of jumping off the swatter pad." We lay down that sin of anger, and before we know it, we're at it again. We sacrifice that habit, and off it crawls -- just like that stupid roach. It wasn't until I had beat that thing until it was dead did it stay on that fly swatter. Only then could I dump it in the trash where it stayed.

Maybe the reason I struggle so much with the fluttering roaches in my life, spiritually speaking, is because I really don't kill them. I keep some life in them. So when they come under pressure, they just jump off the pad. And then I go through the process again ... and again ... and again.

By the way, the book I used to swing the first blow? "Seeing the Holy in the Ordinary."