Avoidance as policy

1:35 a.m. Today's project was to call Dewey Pest Control and get them over to our house in response to a foul smell exuding from Heidi's room up in the top corner, under the roof. The crawl space is over her room, poor girl! But she's getting married next year and her room will become yet another guest bedroom/storage room for us.

We were delighted to see our regular rat man here with his ladder after just a couple of hours. Gabriel is very cheerful and does a quick, neat job. He comes once a month for maintenance, but he wasn't due for a week or so. The stench was mild, but in this heat, ooh! It would have gone bad fast! The rats travel over to the roof on the large branches of our Silver Dollar Eucalyptus trees. Before Gabriel even got here, Steve had cut down three massive branches using a 15 foot long pole saw with wicked blades on the end. When I came back from an errand, he was already chopping up the branches and putting them in the green waste dumpster.

After a time upstairs with Gabriel, Steve came down to the kitchen for a plastic grocery bag, signifying at least one dead rat requiring removal. Yes!! See, the crawl space is "where they come to die" because they can't get out. (And they say rats are smart! Guess not!) All I said to Steve was, "Don't let me see it or smell it." The rat was successfully removed from our property.

Unless it was in a pet store, I've never seen a rat--and I don't intend to start now at age 58. I know I'd have nightmares. It really is funny, because I lived out in the country in Colorado in the '70s, and even with going into neighbors' root cellars with them to get potatoes or canned goods, I never saw one. You can call me squeamish, that's fine. I almost threw up at the sight of what I think was a cockroach a few years ago, but gathered my strength to smash it and call Steve for cleanup! Poor thing was probably an innocent cricket...

Right now, we have a small gnat invasion in our avocado forest by the kitchen window, but I've set up the "Flypod" and scores have gotten trapped already. Goody. Must be the moisture from all of that potting soil drawing them, who knows? But I don't care to coexist with them!

Some situations we are best to avoid, such as the sexual temptation that Joseph experienced in Genesis 39:11-13, when his boss' wife demanded that he sleep with her, but he ran outside instead. Earlier, he had said to her, "How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" If you know you'll get carried away at a sale, sisters, stay away from Kohls!! (I speak from experience, getting a grip on myself in the housewares department one day only when I realized that I didn't even have room for the pretty completer set that went with some decorative porcelain trays I was buying!) And it's not just women--the big screen tvs at Best Buy look pretty alluring to my husband!

Some avoidance is wise, helpful, and prudent. But when avoidance turns to denial and we don't go to the the doctor over serious illness, a strange lump, digestive issues, or even allergy attacks that temporarily stop our breathing, it's just foolish and dangerous. God gives us the signal of pain to get our attention and cause us to take action or ask for help.

Emotional and mental avoidance/denial are equally deadly to our spiritual wellbeing, personal relationships, and ability to pray and worship God with our whole heart. Whom do we think we are hiding from, anyway? God knows everthing about us, including our sins, and our every thought before we think it!! And He loves His children anyway!! Psalm 139:1-4 says,

O LORD, You have searched me and known me.

You know my sitting down and my rising up;

You understand my thought afar off.

You comprehend my path and my lying down,

And are acquainted with all my ways.

There is not a word on my tongue,

But behold, O LORD, You know it altogether.

In verse 7, the Psalmist David asks, "Where can I go from your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?" The obvious answer, from before the foundation of the world and on to all eternity is, "NOWHERE!"

Far from causing me to feel distraught and desperate, I find vast comfort in knowing that I cannot get off into a spiritual crawlspace and try to hide with my "secret" sin! I'd be trapping myself like those nasty rats, wouldn't I? Why not just come out into the Sonshine of my Heavenly Father's presence, run into his waiting arms with confession of my sin, and receive the comfort of His never-failing forgiveness?

As the radio commercial says, "It's a no-brainer!"