When I was a little boy, my grandfather used to tell me stories of his childhood. One story that stuck with me that I remembered just yesterday went like this. When he was a little boy growing up in the Southeast he could remember going out with his dad and trapping different animals. They would trap muskrat, river otter, beaver, foxes, skunks and anything else that might just happen by a river bottom. One animal that they always had trouble trapping was the raccoon. These animals are smart and wary of new situations. He would go on to tell me that they learned of a very effective way of trapping these cunning animals. They would find a hollowed out log…nail up boards on both ends…and make sure it was a contained box. If the log didnt have a knothole they would cut out a hole just big enough for you to get you hand in. Then they would carefully take 10-20 nails and hammer them in diagonally all around the hole they cut. They would then take something shiney such as aluminum foil, an old pocket watch, or a piece of an aluminum can and drop it down in the hole. They would then set this log trap close to a river way where raccoons would frequent and leave it there overnight. Now listening to this story I could not believe that this trap would work on such a cunning and smart animal. My grandfather would go on to tell me that they would get up in the morning, walk down the the river’s edge and sure enough find a raccoon stuck to the log. See the draw of that shiney object was just too much for that raccoon to resist and he just had to stick his hand down in that hole. When he would go to pull his hand out the nails would trap his hand. I asked my grandfather “if raccoons are so smart, why didnt he just let go of the object and free himself.” He just replied, “the impulse of him needing that thing, was what led to his demise!”
Those words rang out in my head and I have never forgotten that story. This is a great illustration of the traps that we get into many times in our own lives. I dont know about you, but when I think of a trap I automatically think of it as something that is unescapable. But many times in our lives we are entrapped by something that we just “have to have”. It can come in many ways, shapes and forms. Many times we can even rationalize our impulse of just “having to have it”. Our impulse of needing that thing is what many times lead us to our demise spiritually, mentally, emotionally and even physically. So the challenge this week is to search our lives for any traps. Many times they are some of our biggest frustrations and the things that are draining on our happiness and contentment. So this week have God help you find these traps, and pray that He will show you to just “let go” of that thing that we hold in our hand that is keeping us trapped so that we may live free!
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