Today I was at my mom's house and saw her trash needed to be taken out. So I began to gather up the trash and headed out to the trash bin. As I lifted the lid and threw the trash in, a little critter jumps up and hisses at me. I throw the trash and I am screaming at the top of my lungs running. Okay, this is the part like at the scary movies you want to tell the person, "Don't, don't go into that room you hear a noise in!" I go back to the trash bin to see what it was. I lift the lid ever so slowly only to scream again as this little raccoon sits up, screeching at me with his little paws up in the air, like I had just caught him doing something wrong. I just had to get my phone camera out of my purse and take a picture of him. I tried to coax him out as my mom was yelling, "Get away from him, he could have rabies!" This little guy was caught red handed and he wasn't about to go anywhere. Are we ever like that? Do you ever feel as though you were caught red handed by God and you know you are doing something you shouldn't be doing, and you feel His conviction? As sinners we get caught red handed all the time. I'm sure there isn't a day that goes by that I am doing something against God's will. I try my best to follow Him, but I still falter, I still fail trying to be the person He has called me to be. Just as our children have been caught with their hand in the cookie jar, we have been caught with our hand reaching out to the world for something to satisfy us. The amazing thing about this little raccoon is it is part of his nature to get in trash heaps for food. He was hungry and he was going to get him some food to fill him up. It is in our nature also to sin, we were born with a sin nature. Although we will never be perfect until heaven, we can overcome temptation by walking away, by putting our hands up lifted high just as the little raccoon did when he saw me. I'm not sure who was more afraid, me or him, but it was a shock to both of us. Just as when our children make a bad decision, when others make a choice of wrong doing, and we too do not reach our potential, it is a shock to us when we do wrong, when our children do wrong. We tend to look at others when something has happened and we think,"Wow, I would have never thought she would have done that." We live in a world that is full of sin and temptation. We face it every day of our lives in some way or fashion. But, we can pull our hand out of the cookie jar without being told, we can take a step back and think before we act. We don't want to be sorry just for getting caught, we want to be sorry for thinking the thought, for allowing the action to take place. An apology with an excuse is not an apology at all. When we are caught with our hands up, we need to be humble before the Lord, and truly be sorry for hurting Him with our sin. Pride gets us nowhere fast, but when we humble ourselves before the Lord with open hearts, He forgives and doesn't remember that sin anymore. Is that not grace? Have you been caught with your hands up? My hands have been up many times as I have been caught by the Holy Spirit. Today we can turn all that around and teach ourselves disipline to walk away from temptation, and free ourselves of the guilt and shame... "Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him." James 1:12
