In the Driver's Seat!

"Look, everybody!" our granddaughter, Allison, announced as she came into the room, smiling broadly. We looked up to see her carrying a cardboard mock-up of a 50's classic car that formerly held a kid's meal from a local retro-diner. Peering over the miniature windshield was a pair of bright eyes in the Stuart Little pointy face of her pet hamster. We burst out laughing at the comical sight.

The hamster, Daisy, can often be seen rolling around in her exercise ball. The sight reminds me of something in a movie, "Indian in the Cupboard," I saw a few years ago. The brother of the main character had a pet rat kept in an exercise ball which bounded through the house and down the stairs like some alien sphere.

Daisy was entertaining us in her ball the other day when a friend dropped by. She told the story of a gerbil of her childhoood that flew around in his ball, sometimes slamming against things at top speed. One day when it made impact with the dishwasher, the small plastic door flew open and the gerbil was suddenly free. Stunned by his sudden freedom, he stood frozen to the spot. The cat, which had been watching in fascination, didn't know how to react to the sudden availability of the object of his desire and also stood frozen in indecision. Just as he was about to pounce, a voice yelled, "Stop!" Halted in his tracks by his mistress, the cat forced its natural instincts into submission.

"Sometime later," the friend continued, "a mouse got into the house, and we expected the cat to take care of it. Instead, he just looked at it, holding himself back because he remembered his reprimand!"

How often have we felt our God-given impulse to stand up to evil squelched because we have been conditioned to be "politically correct" or "tolerant"? Just this morning I was reading Jeremiah 1:8, where it says, "Be not afraid of their faces." God had called Jeremiah as a prophet to the nations, but Jeremiah was pleading his inadequacy as an inexperienced youth. The rest of verse 8 assures him, "For I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord."

We need to get out of our protective plastic bubble of timidity that is going nowhere fast and take the wheel of opportunity to stand up for our beliefs and righteous convictions! We can be sure He will deliver us, too!