essays 235-241

1. #241 Feeling Like the Country Mouse
2. #240 Heel-biters
3. #239 Hat Hair
4. #238 Good Lessons from Bad Examples
5. # 237 A Good, Hot Shower
6. #236 Misfits
7. #235 Soul Watchers

#241 Feeling Like the Country Mouse

Are you familiar with the Aesop's fable about the Town Mouse and the Country Mouse? It is the tale of two mice, one rough and rustic, one cultured and polished. One day, the city mouse takes a visit to his cousin in the country. The country mouse feeds him the best he has to offer (in the version I read, beans and bacon, cheese and bread) but the city mouse turns up his elegant nose at the simple fare. He then invites his cousin to visit him in the city. He promises him that "once you have been in town a week, you'll wonder how you ever could have stood a country life." (I'll continue this story later)

Have you ever felt like the country mouse--that your best is woefully inadequate? Your cars are always second-hand and more utilitarian than flashy; your home is comfortable, but no showplace; your meatloaf will never measure up to Grandma's. Your kids are great kids but they are not particularly talented (not in any area that most people recognize, that is. They do show extraordinary imagination when it comes to fabricating excuses.) You have enough clothes to wear, but none of them are fashionable. Maybe you are content and even thankful, but once in awhile, you wonder what it would be like to trade places with the city mouse. You've spent your whole life feeling inadequate and second rate. You wonder how God can even use a country mouse like you, a nobody going nowhere. City mice seem to have so many more social contacts and opportunities to be witnesses for Christ. But if it is your lot in life is to be an overlooked country mouse, thank God for country mouse opportunities to serve Him. Perhaps to serve behind the scenes, but to serve, no less essentially. Yes, be thankful. Those city dogs can eat you alive. Not everyone has the stamina or stomach for city mouse living.

Do you have some of the outside trappings of the city mouse but feel like a city mouse on the inside? A nobody in an Armani suit? You are certain that everyone can see through your disguise; you feel like a fake. That is even worse. You feel trapped; unable to relate to either side. You are trying so hard to live up to others' expectations that you don't know who you really are anymore. You are not the wolf in sheep's clothing, but rather like the donkey in the lion's skin (another Aesop's fable. He fooled everyone until he opened his mouth and brayed.) You are not alone. You might be surprised how many actors there are whose own lives are a stage. They never stop acting.

To finish the fable, the city mouse doesn't own his own home like the country cousin; he is himself an uninvited guest at a rich residence. The two mice help themselves to the remains of a sumptuous feast, the likes of which the country cousin has never even envisioned. But there is a down-side: dogs. Huge mastiff's, terrifying beasts with cavernous, slathering jaws. The city mouse is used to such excitement, but the country mouse flees for his life. The moral is: "Better beans and bacon in peace than cakes and ale in fear." That almost sounds like a proverb. Maybe Proverbs 17:1 "Better is a dry morsel, and quietness therewith, than an house full of sacrifices with strife." Or 15:17 "Better is a dinner of herbs where love is , than a stalled ox and hatred therewith." There is something to be said for plain old country-mouse living, after all. The other side of the fence is not as green as it appears from a distance. So, if you feel like a country mouse today, you are not alone. And if God is calling you to be a city mouse, be strong and courageous.

Lori Fiechter
January 10, 2000

#240 Heel-biters

It was warm enough for me to go out walking again last week. The Amish on the corner have a new dog I hadn't seen last time I walked past their place--one of those dogs whose bark is bigger than his whole body. What a built-in amplifier system he must have! I was minding my own business, briskly walking on the opposite of the road from the little black and brown dust rag, when he crossed over and started yipping at my heels. I ignored him at first, but he was getting uncomfortably close to those unprotected ankles of mine. I abruptly spun around toward him and--he fled. That fast. I didn't even have to bark back. He was a timid little heel-biter, for all his advance P.R.. Just an annoyance, he posed no real danger to my health and well-being.

I can think of another little black dog that often nips at my heels. When I focus on him too much, he turns back into the ravening wolf that used to terrorize me. It helps if I consciously make the effort to think of him as a bothersome little heel biter. He is still trying to make my life miserable, stirring up my former fears and anxieties, but now I don't listen to him. (That is, I try not to.) He is a terrible liar and master of disguise, anyway. He knows his number is almost up, his reign as god of this world (II Corinthians 4:4) will come to a fiery end. (Revelation 20:10) He no longer has any power over me that I don't grant to him. And, just like that pesky little black dog, if I resist him, he'll flee from me, tail between his legs. Have you seen those sharp teeth? Have you heard his fierce growl? Think "heel-biter". But remember, it isn't you he is afraid of--it is the Lamb behind you.

Satan isn't the only heel-biter we face. There are other less-serious heel-biters than nip at us everyday. There are little annoyance that cause us to look inward instead of upward, there are time wasters and distractions. It is so hard to focus on walking the road with those little heel-biters nipping at us constantly. I don't know what is nipping at your heels; I am quite familiar with some of the little dogs that harass me: calendars that are too full, responsibilities that eat up huge chunks of time, bills that gobble up whole checkbooks in one bite, machines that don't work like they should, and a body that isn't working as well as it used to either. Heel-biters, all of them. Just part of life on earth, just another reminder that this is not heaven and we shouldn't expect things to be perfect. Not that it is easy to put up with heel-biters. As Mark Twain wrote, "By trying, we can easily learn to endure adversity. Another man's, I mean." Yes, many of us have unseen heel-biters, dogging our every footstep. Don't let today's heel-biters make you take your eyes off the road.

Lori Fiechter
January 6, 2000

#239 Hat Hair

I had a bad case of hat hair the other day. I had just washed my hair so that wouldn't smell like the chicken house when I shopped for groceries. I was in a hurry and didn't want to bother with the hair dryer but it was too cold to go outside with wet hair. I slapped on my homemade, wider-than-usual polar fleece earband. It didn't help matters any that I had put some gel on my hair as well. When I got back home, I removed the earband. After I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror, I was thankful that I hadn't removed the band out in public. Worst case of hat hair I've ever seen: my hair was pressed flat from one ear, up around the top of my head and down to the other ear. I've seen wheat fields look that way sometimes in patches when a strong wind has matted the stems level with the ground. I was matted, too. Even after I'd removed the innocuous-looking earband, my hair was still molded in its image.

There are a couple of verses in Romans that I thought of while suffering from hat hair. Both verses talked about being conformed. In Romans 8:29, it states that we are predestined to be conformed to Christ's image. I like the Amplified's rendering: "destined from the beginning to be molded into the image of His Son [and share inwardly His likeness]". In Romans 12:2, we are warned against being conformed to this world. As the Amplified puts it, "Do not be conformed to this world (this age) [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs]."

People should look at us and be able to see that we are already being molded into Christ's image. (See II Corinthians 3:18) We won't be entirely changed into His image in this life, but we will someday, when He returns. (See Philippians 3:21 and I John 2:28) Even so, we should be looking more and more like Christ, and less and less like a product of this age. We all have hat hair, so to speak. We all resemble something; we all show the results of an inner molding. I'm not talking about the way we look on the outside; the idea is not to have the same hair-style, to wear the same style of clothing that Jesus had on earth. (Who knows, anyway?) Being conformed to His inner image is the goal. And His image was that of a servant; an obedient servant, a suffering servant. (See Philippians 2:7,8 and Hebrews 5:8 ) It is not a simple matter to "put on Christ" (Galatians 3:27)--not quite like just putting a hat on over wet hair. It takes more effort, and it is sometimes tempting to remove such an unfashionable hat in mixed company. Put on Christ--and don't take Him off until you've been completely molded into His image. If you think you've already reached that pinnacle, you are either deceiving yourself--or you're dead.

That is, truly dead to this world. (see Colossians 3:1-4)

Lori Fiechter
January 6, 2000

"Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come."

"Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."

Lori Fiechter
January 5, 2000

# 237 A Good, Hot Shower

I don't like working in the chicken house and doubt that I ever will. (The egg room with the automated egg machines is not bad, I'm mainly talking about the chicken house itself.) If only chickens didn't smell so bad--alive or dead--maybe I wouldn't mind as much. My respirator helps, but the ammonia still leaks through after awhile. Then there is the smell of forgotten, rotten eggs in some of the egg flats. Ammonia and sulfur. And there is the dust--of feathers and feed and droppings. But all of this dust and smell has caused me to appreciate something else far more than I used to: the luxury of a good, hot shower--with plenty of soap--when I get back home. The dirtier and smellier I am, the more I am grateful for a cleansing shower and clean clothes to put on. I used to take showers just out of habit; now I really need them. And I relish the feeling of being clean again.

In the same way, we can see why publicans and sinners showed much more love and appreciation to Christ than those who thought they were already righteous. Read the parable that Jesus told Simon the Pharisee in Luke 7:36-47. Who loves the most? The one who is forgiven most. Who is the most grateful to be clean? The one who realizes how dirty he was.

Does that mean we should "continue in sin, that grace may abound"? You know Paul's answer to that, "God forbid." But it does mean that we should occasionally remember the life from which Christ has saved us. We shouldn't feel smug when we hear about someone else's moral failings, but think, "but for the grace of God, that could have been me." We should say with Paul, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief." (I Timothy 1:15) Remember what you were like before you were saved? Paul lists a litany of sins in I Corinthians 6: 9,10 and then states: "And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." Do you realize that it was not because of your inherent goodness that God chose you for His kingdom? It is only because of God's rich, abundant mercy and love that He has called us and drawn us to Him.(Ephesians 2:4-7 and I Peter 1:3-5) Because of His love, he has washed you and given you a white garment--His righteousness--to wear. Are you appreciative?

I can't stay clean when it is our week for chicken duty. Every day I need another shower or two. Now, I don't get dirty on purpose. I don't wallow in the bucket of cracked eggs or slide down the manure piles for the fun of it. (I've never liked messes. I cringe to even think about food fights or mud baths.) As Peter said, the time past of our life sufficed to have wrought the will of the Gentiles-- we are no longer to live to satisfy our own desires, but to the will of God. (See I Peter 4:1-4 and Ephesians 2) We had better not be seeking out ways to make ourselves filthy, thinking that "God will clean me up again when I get home." That is a dangerous attitude. Keeping pressing toward the mark; keep walking circumspectly, keep on redeeming the time, keep on renewing your mind. And every time you take a nice, hot bath (especially if you've been working hard and really need one), think of how Christ has cleansed you from your sins. And be thankful.

Lori Fiechter,
December 8, 1999

#236 Misfits

The other night, our family sat down to watch that perennial Christmas special, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer": the one with Burl Ives as the sleekly sliding, singing snowman. Our sons like the show because of the slightly scary Bumble, the Abominable Snowman. I like it because of the message: there is a place, a very special place, for misfits. At one point, the outcast reindeer and outcast elf (the only male elf with hair and the only elf who wasn't happy making toys because he knew he was meant to be a dentist) sing a duet: "We're a couple of misfits". There are even more misfits on the island of misfit toys: polka dotted elephants, trains with square wheels, a jack-in-the-box named Charlie, among others. But in the end, there is a place for all the misfits, even the reformed Bumble.

There is a place for every misfit in God's economy as well. God uses misfits--often on purpose, when there are other, more suitable choices available. Why does He do that? Read I Corinthians 1:26-29. God has chosen the weak, foolish, base, and despised (despised sounds especially like misfits to me) things of the world so that no flesh should glory in His presence. He chooses misfits and underdogs so that it is patently obvious that God is the One who should be praised. So that everyone recognizes "the battle is the Lord's". Gideon's army of 300 against 135,000 Midianites? Why, they shouldn't logically stand a chance. According to Luke 14:31, you'd think Gideon hadn't figured accurately. But against all odds, Gideon's small army won and God got the praise due Him.

God often uses misfits--and odds far against his favor. Think of Abraham--a stranger in a strange land, by his own words. Joseph--hated by his own brothers. David--not respected by his older brothers, either, and overlooked by his own father as a possible king-elect. And his band of 600 men were all misfits themselves. Moses--a Hebrew, raised as an Egyptian. Think of the prophets or Christ's disciples (or some of the most successful missionaries and preachers). Do you think you need to be in a position of influence to be greatly used of God? Would you have chosen fishermen and tax collectors (or a fanatic Pharisee) to build your church? That's because our ways are not His ways. (Isaiah 55:8,9)

God uses misfits. It is the message of Grace: We have not chosen Him, but He has chosen us. (John 15:16) It is only by His grace that we can say with Paul, "I am what I am". (I Corinthians 15:10) I am a bit of a misfit myself; always have been, at least since about 6^th grade. It is no one's fault but my own that I never quite fit in. I didn't really try to fit in, but stubbornly chose to be different. My social skills have never been polished, my athletic ability is non-existent (I was always one of the last chosen in gym class), and my academic prowess was not something to endear me to others. I would either be a leader or an outcast. I've been both, but never really one of the group. That's okay with me now. I know that God uses misfits; I know He can use me--and all of you other misfits out there as well. He has made each of us for a purpose; it is our duty to fulfill and not frustrate that purpose. A couple of misfits in God's hands can do great things for the Kingdom.

Lori Fiechter
December 6, 1999

#235 Soul Watchers

You've heard of soul winners, but are you familiar with soul watchers? Of course, soul-winning is crucial to Christianity. Christianity would have died out in the first century had not the early church taken Christ's Great Commission (Matthew 23:17-20) seriously. We need true evangelists today as well if the whole world is to have the chance to hear the gospel (read Mark 13:10). Not everyone has the gift of evangelism; I admire those who do. Soul-winning is an exciting enterprise: snatching souls out of the clutches of Satan and guiding them into the safety of God's fold. Of course, it is the Holy Spirit who actually draws souls to the Father and converts them but He often uses people to carry out this work. We should admire soul-winners and encourage them in their gift. As Proverbs 11:30 states, "he that winneth souls is wise."

But what about soul-watchers? Have you ever heard of such persons? Read Hebrews 13 carefully. The last time I heard this chapter read in church, verse 17 caught my attention:

"Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you."

They watch for your souls--they are soul-watchers.

If you belong to a local congregation (assembling together is encouraged in Hebrews 10:25) as opposed to say, a cyber-church, (or getting all the church you need from the radio) then you have a soul-watcher or two. How does that make you feel? Thankful? Uneasy? Resentful, even? How do you feel about those who have the role of leadership in your church?

As much as many of us like the idea of soul-winning, the idea of someone assigned to watch our soul can be disturbing or off-putting. This is especially true if you have an independent spirit, a Lone Ranger mentality. Is it just me, or does the idea of someone else watching your soul make you bristle and think, '"I'll watch my own soul, thank you!" However, we all need accountability and so we ought to respect and honor those whom God has placed over us in the church. They are in that position for our own welfare and benefit.

Are we ever guilty of viewing soul-watchers with a suspicious attitude? (Sort of like looking in the rear view mirror and seeing a police car there, cramping our style by making us more cautious.) Do we ever subconsciously gripe, "What I do is none of his business; I report only to God." Accept the fact that God works through His church; it is the agency He chose to use in this world. If your church leaders are ungodly, wantonly misinterpreting scripture or living sinful lives; if they are not servant leaders as admonished in I Peter 5:3 (see also the warnings in Ezekiel 34) it is perhaps past time to look for another church. But if your leaders are humble men of God, honestly trying to fulfill their responsibilities, then cut them some slack. They have to give account of your soul--and that of all those other souls in your congregation. How would you like that job? (For a sobering chapter on that subject, read Ezekiel 33, especially verse 6.)

How can we make the watchman's load a bit easier? Hebrews 13:18 exhorts, "Pray for us." That is good advice. In the armor of God chapter (Ephesians 6), Paul asks that prayers may be given for him that he would "speak boldly, as I ought to speak". Pray that God will give your leaders the grace and wisdom they need to be good soul-watchers. And one last thing, try to get along with your other brothers and sisters in Christ; as much as possible, try to settle your squabbles and be at peace with each other. (See Philippians 4:1) As a parent, I confess that one of my least favorite roles is that of judge or referee. Whenever I hear things like:

"He's putting me in a trap."

"I wasn't the last one to use it; I shouldn't have to put it away."

"It's not my turn to do that. "

"That's no fair!"

"He's messing up our game again."

When I hear that kind of bickering, I often retort, "Come on! Can't you guys just get along?"

Well, come on--can't you?

Say a prayer for your soul- watcher today. Maybe, once in awhile, you could even let him know that you appreciate him. If he's human, (as I expect he is), he will be grateful.