Day 170 - December 1 - Greased Pigs

December. Can you believe that? We're rapidly approaching the six-month mark on this journey, and trying to fit the Christmas spirit into it is proving a bit daunting. For one thing, our home is in a state of upheaval what with all the construction, and Connor living in the dining room, and everything that goes with it. And to be honest, it's pretty difficult sometimes to feel like there's any spirit left to celebrate with. Not to mention the fact that every inch of floorspace downstairs has a prior claim on it - where would we actually put a tree?

Have y'all checked out the map lately? There's someone in Mexico watching the boy's story! Hi, people from Mexico! And I get pretty excited to see the goings-ons in all the different locations on that map. Without discounting the many, many people all over the USA who are watching and praying along with us, I have been thrilled to see the story spreading to Australia, and China, and Singapore, and other such locations on the other side of the world from us. But now, people in such exotic locations as Okinawa, the Ivory Coast, and the Canary Islands are joining us! It never ceases to amaze me how God is bringing such a diverse group of people, from such wonderful places, together for His purposes through Connor's journey. I know it's all for His glory, but I sure wish I had the specifics about what He's up to!

Oh, I left out a couple of places that intrigue me. First, Ireland. What's up in Ireland? God is doing something there, and ConnorWatch has a number of people following along with us from there - the island has sprouted red balls all over it in the last couple of months. Boy, I wish I could see and hear how God is using this story there! And the one red ball on the map that maybe intrigues me the most - the one up on Hudson Bay in Canada. I've got this mental image of a snowed-in cabin along an icy, landlocked cove, with the sun barely peeking over the ridge for a few minutes each day. And there's somebody in a parka huddled over a computer, reading the blog and shivering from the cold (and laughing right now at how badly mistaken my mental images are, most likely! Too many movies; not enough reality!). Still, I think it's cool that God is bringing so many along from so many places. It humbles us a bit and we pray that somehow God will use this tiny offering to bless, challenge, and encourage each of you somehow.

So, what's this got to do with greased pigs, anyhow? Well, I have to admit that I have been struggling (again) with depression and hopelessness this weekend. Joélle and Cherié and Connor have all been sick with the flu or some other bug the last couple of days; and, like every single one of the last 170 days, there hasn't been as much progress as I would like to have seen. Like most humans, this gets me down sometimes, when I take my eyes off of Jesus and His provision, and focus on the circumstances. So this morning, I was reading in 2 Corinthians and was caught by a phrase in verse 5. The context here is about the weapons of our warfare not being of flesh, but the line that caught my attention was "we take every thought captive to obey Christ". And I thought, "Yeah, well, that's like trying to catch a greased pig".

When I was growing up back in Texas, one of the things we used to do to entertain ourselves was to have rodeos. And one of the things that was often done to give the kids a laugh was to let the kids come into the arena to try and catch a piglet. The men would have a small pen with a piglet in it, and they'd get a bunch of the young'uns gathered around and let the pig out of the pen, and the kids had to catch it again. There'd be a bunch of kids trying to catch this medium-sized pig, and it'd be running all over the place trying to not get caught. If you've never seen it, you cannot possibly imagine how good a piglet is at not getting caught! These kids would be scrambling all over the arena, and there'd be 20 or 30 of 'em, and only one pig, but the pig won nearly every time. Even when you thought "OK, they've got it surrounded - it'll never get away" - sure enough, the little piglet would somehow come slipping out between somebody's legs and off they'd go again.

And they didn't even grease the pig! That was just using a standard, ungreased pig! So imagine what it would have been like if the pig was also covered with petroleum jelly, like we used to do with watermelons at pool parties back then. That'd be nearly impossible to capture, right?

I guess that's my point - here I am, dealing with keeping my mind where I need it to be - on Christ, instead of on the (completely unknown) future, or on (what I often see as) the glacial progress so far, or whatever it is that gets my thoughts going at this moment - and what I'm supposed to be doing is taking every thought captive in obedience to Christ.

How do I go about that? Every time I get aholt of a thought (there's my Texas upbringing coming out again), it squirms and wriggles it's way out of my grasp and I'm off chasing it again. I'm not very good at rounding them up and keeping 'em captured.

Maybe if I quit letting 'em out of the pen in the first place...

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