Of Mice and (Cowardly) Men

We had a mouse in our house last week, you would think he was the most dangerous of all God’s creations. We noticed the ratty little booger Wednesday afternoon. We tried to alert the cat (Rahab) to “this present danger” and she seemed at best . . . disinterested. Finally, after being reminded of her raison d'être, she was on the case. She is an excellent mouser bringing samples of her work from the field behind our house to us weekly. As a precaution, when we left for church, we set a trap between the fridge and the counter.

When we returned, the trap was still set, and the cat had yet to dispose of said pestilence. In fact over the next four nights the cat would engage in a noisy, and sleep depriving, game of cat and mouse. We soon realized that “game” was exactly what Rahab was playing.

At one point she caught Lucifer (what I named the mouse) and came walking to the bedroom where I sat working on my computer. Have I mentioned that I am slightly traumatized by mice? She dropped the mouse just inside the doorway and looked at me triumphantly. As I sat there trying to figure out how to get out of the room without going anywhere NEAR the only doorway, she playfully scooted it toward me. This of course resuscitated Lucifer from his stupor, and he darted away under the dresser. I, on the other hand darted out of the room.

On Saturday we discovered the mouse had created a bachelor (we hoped) pad in a drawer underneath the oven. He had made a nice bed in one of the cups of my former muffin pan. So off to the store I went to get yet another solution to the problem – glue traps. Before leaving for church Sunday morning, I loaded the drawer with these traps. When we came home, he was not stuck to a trap, but comfortably curled up in his bed. He even looked up at me as if to say, “Could you please close the drawer, the light is in my eyes and I am trying to sleep!” But alas, I roused him up, and he ran directly into one of the traps. He was disposed of. But I languished in my embarrassment of being afraid of a little mouse.

Fear is not from God. In fact 2 Timothy 1:7 tells us: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” Yet fear is a very present and often crippling emotion. Just as I tried three solutions to the “Lucifer” problem, God has given us three tools to trap fear and render it impotent in our lives.

• Power – God’s power, that is. One of the reasons we fear is that we think we lack the necessary ability to handle those situations that frighten us. You know what? We are right. But God has ALL POWER and He is the one who can and will handle any obstacle we face.
  
  
• Love – We are assured God’s love, and because He loves us, we need not fear what will happen. The ONE who is in control of this whole universe cares about us deeply – he proved it by sending His Son to die for our sins. Because He loves us, we can rest assured He is watching over and protecting us.
  
  
• Sound Mind – I have learned that life is a constant battle between what I feel and what I know – emotions versus reason. I blogged about this sometime ago. Emotions are a useful tool to help us discern what is going on in and around us, but emotions do not accurately define reality. What we know about God, His ways, and His purposes form a secure matrix from which we can view life. As we learn more about God and experience His activity in our lives, we learn to trust our experience more than our emotions.

So, when the rodent of fear tries to neutralize your life, remember there is an all-powerful, all-knowing God in control of your life. Take your problems to Him and trust Him to bring you through.

By the way – the cat has been placed on probation. It’s is on her permanent record.