I have had a pesky raccoon around the house and in the garage, so I thought it would be good to relocate him to a location that would be removed from my location! ( ie, make him another persons’ problem! )
Anyway, I set out the trap Sunday night, and caught my first victim on Monday – my own cat. geesh!
Last night, I change the bait, and reset the trap, with in the hour I had another victim. This time a big ugly opossum. I released the little guy and off he waddled – appearing to have his head down and his tail between his legs like he was saying “I am so stupid, I will never do that again.!”
Well, I reset the trap, and went off to bed. During the night I could hear something thrashing around in the cage and so I threw back the covers and went to investigate.
Guess who was there?
AGAIN!
No, not the cat, the ‘possum. This time he tried to play dead. I guess he was thinking I would not be able to see him lying there paying the penalty for his greed, for fulfilling his desire for oranges and peanut butter.
Caught again, in the same trap, going after the same thing.
Of course, at the time, I had a hearty laugh, until I got ready to write this morning. Then I thought about the parallel to our own lives. How many times do we go back, over and over to the same trap that doesn’t really produce the reward we had anticipated. We end up wallowing all night in our own mess, just like my little buddy in the back yard.
Luckily, we are not alone in the trap and we have a way out.
21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! Romans 7