Wrestling With Aliens

Okay, before you start worrying...No. I am not selling everything to buy an RV to move to the outskirts of Area 51.  This will just be an analogy.  So, get a third cup of coffee and enjoy!

Yesterday, I began the arduous task of clearing the area behind my house where I want to grow lots of flowers this summer.  It had rained everyday for the last three days so I knew the ground would be easy to manipulate.  Although I came across old rocks and the occasional piece of buried trash, there was really nothing out of the ordinary...until....the...alien.  This strange, embedded, root, branch, vine combination was to be the challenge of all gardening exploits.  I called it an alien ( literally, I called it that. out loud. by myself. ) and began the process of trying to uproot it. 

This was to be a long, painful process that took the better part of an hour. I dug deep, poured water into the hole, twisted the tentacle arms of this foreign growth....all to no avail.  After Tylenol, lunch, and screaming at it...finally I got it....well, most of it.

I called it an alien because it looked like the "skitters" in a show my daughter and I started watching last summer called: "Falling Skies."  Weird, misshapen and abnormally strong....yes this weird life form was somehow meant to be the cause of my demise.  ( like the characters in the show)

However, as I later soaked in a hot bath and yes, more Tylenol I begin to think of what we as Christians do in this world as we "wrestle with aliens."  Whenever a situation arises that causes us to rely on 100% faith, we have two choices. Believe or wrestle. 

As a long time Christian, I don't completely "give up."  I have seen too many times how God always comes through.  I do mean always.  It never fails, yet in my frailty there is that fleeting moment when I wrestle...
The "what ifs" start to invade and spread their tentacles of doubt, plans B and C and D, and yes...worry.

We are then reminded in Ephesians 6:12 that we "wrestle not with flesh and blood, but against rulers, authorities, against the cosmic powers in the darkness around us, and in the heavenly realm." (International Standard Version)

As I was "wrestling" with that vine/branch/tree physically...I was also "wrestling" with more than my share of  "what ifs" that day.  Financial needs, teenager issues, and on and on.  I remember throwing the shovel down in elation as the root came loose.  As I went to mailbox, a prayer had also been answered.  I threw down the "what ifs." again.

So, as we go about the "final frontier" we call these days.  We have to remember the faithfulness of the one who gives us His strength when we are "wrestling." No matter the issue, the cause, the heartbreak, the desperation we feel; we don't have to wrestle.  Quite frankly, we're just not equipped to do so.

So, I refuse to fight anymore when it comes to those moments of "what next." I have learned over and over these last few years that God will take care of it. the bills. the kids. the job. the empty gas tank, the back pain from wrestling with an alien root in my back yard.  Will I have the occasional doubt/ of course, I am human.  But, the things I deal with? Well, remember they are not. (Cue eerie, sci-fi music here please)

"It's not that I have already reached this goal or have already become perfect. But I keep pursuing it, hoping somehow to embrace it just as I have been embraced by the Messiah Jesus." Philippians 3:12 (ISV)