Happy Father's Day!

When I was about 10 years old, I was a chunky little guy, with black wire framed glasses, and course thick brown hair. On most Saturday mornings you could find me sitting, rather contently in front of the television, watching cartoons, and finishing up 3 or 4 bowls of fruity pebbles. If it were up to me, I would sit there all day along, or at least until about 1:00, when the X-men cartoons ended, and be quite happy.

One Saturday morning I was shaken to the depth of my being by an event that still brings a laugh to my father's heart, and a sparkle to his eye, every time he tells it. "That doesn't make any sense" you ask, surely your dad would not laugh at your mental anguish? Yes, he would, but it is understandable for a couple of reasons: 1. While he orchestrated an event that to this day has given me a fear of domesticated farm animals, he was also, in the process, teaching me a life long lesson (one of those father/son moments). 2. I have issues, so therefore the mental anguish is more because of me, not him.....

So, on to the story. As I was sitting 3 feet away from a 42" inch Mitsubishi Console TV one Saturday, in about Mid Summer, I hear the front door open and my dad stick his head in and tell me to come outside. In my mind, I was trying to gauge the tone in which he told me to move, (I wasn't sure if I should be worried that I had left something out in the yard after being told numerous times to remove such object). I remember being somewhat confused, but headed out the door anyway. When I got outside, my dad pointed to a hairy four legged animal standing about 50 yards away in our yard. As I stood beside my dad, a little groggy from leaving the comfortable air conditioned house and walking into 90+ degree heat, he says, "take this rope, tie around that goat and bring it down the street to its house". (You see, our neighbors had a small variety of small farm animals, and this so-called "goat" had escaped and decided that the grass in my front yard, of all places, was the best). By the way, I am still bitter about this.......and I am still bitter towards goats most of the time......Sometimes I have nightmares.

So, being the naive, obedient son,.....I think, "hey, no biggie, its just a goat, Ill head over, rope this guy, and be back in time for Garfield!" So, I grab the rope and confidently walk towards this somewhat innocent looking animal. It just stands there eating, with its back to me, like it couldn't care less about what I was doing. So, I walk right up to it, put the rope around its neck, and then it happens! ATTACK of the GOAT!!!!!!!!! (By the way, the goat had horns, very large, curved and mean looking horns!)

As I tried to slip the rope around its neck, the goat catches on to the situation, and decides that my hand will take the place of the grass! It actually tried to bite me, but me, having cat like reflexes, and having just seen a preview for the new x-men, intelligently reach up and grab the goats horns with both hands....now,.... I thought, I have total control, Of Course, my dad didn't seem to have this same confidence, as I could look and see him literally rolling on the ground laughing. But I wasn't bitter, of course I did yell at him, "DAD, THE GOAT TRIED TO BITE ME"! NOW ITS TRYING TO RAM ME WITH ITS HORNS! WHAT DO I DO?!!!!!!!

My father was somewhat unavailable for advice because he was too busy trying to stop laughing to catch his breath, and my dilemma of being rammed by a Billy Goat (the goat was the biggest goat I had ever seen!) (of course it also was the only real life goat I had seen), seemed to only make it more difficult for him to quit laughing.

At this point, I knew there was a crucial decision to be made, either wait around and get rammed and bitten, or run for my life, and pray that goats were not as fast as an overweight, somewhat slow 10 year old boy who was scared for his life......

I chose the latter of the two options.

Once again, with X-Men close in mind, I sling the goats horns as hard as I can away from me, and proceed to run faster than a cheetah with its tail on fire, down the drive way, past my dad (who at this time was sitting in a small pond of tears due to what is now considered the funniest moment in history, I guess), and into the front door of the house, where I slammed the door and fell on the couch in a whirlwind of emotion.

Needless to say, my dad finally composed himself, maybe an hour or so later, and took care of the goat for me. I would never be the same again after that day, and sometimes I contribute most of my issues to this single event of trauma.

Now how does all of this connect to the Word?

After reading in my quiet time this AM, I read a verse that at first I kinda chuckled over, but didn't really spend much time thinking about. Then at lunch today, I was going back over what I had read, and as I sat on my couch thinking, I busted out laughing. (No joke, this was a hard laugh, if someone had been in the room with me, Im sure I would have looked somewhat crazy). I just sat and started thinking about what I had read this morning, and it just reminded me of the story of the goat. So what verse am I referring to?

Exodus 4:1-4

In these verses, the Lord is instructing Moses from the burning bush, and he is specifically telling Moses the great signs he will use when in front of pharaoh to show the power the Lord. So picking up in verse 1:

"Then Moses answered, "But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, 'The Lord did not appear to you.'" The Lord said to him, "What is that in your hand?" He said, "A staff"And He (the Lord) said, "Throw it on the ground." So he(Moses) threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. But the Lord said to Moses, "Put out your hand and catch it by the tail" -so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand-

When I started picturing old Moses, (remember this is not a coward of a man by any sort, He had killed a man, and when he saw the burning bush, he was like, Im going to walk right up to this thing and see what it is..)(that is until the Lord told him to stop, at which point he got pretty scared), I started thinking about him seeing that snake. Then I started thinking about how he took off running AAAHHHH!!!! when that snake appeared....(reminded me of how I took off when that goat tried to bite me). As I thought about this, I realized how important that the one little statement is, "Moses ran from it". How much more human of an attribute is there than a healthy fear of snakes? I mean, I don't know too many people (except for maybe my brother), who actually like these things. At the same time, I kind of picture God, in the place of my dad, chuckling to Himself at Moses's reaction. This to me, helps me put more of a physical understanding to my walk with the Lord. While He is the God and creator of all things, He is also a dear friend, and father, who sometimes teaches us things in our lives that seem monumentally scary, but in hind sight, we are able to see that He is total control of the situation, and only growing us stronger out of love for us.

You see, my dad, probably had a good idea all along what my reaction would be to the goat (me being his son, he knows me as well as I know myself probably better), and at the same time, he knew that the goat was not going to really hurt me, no matter what I did to it. In his mind, his love, and experience and wisdom had found a perfect opportunity through a real physical situation to teach me some important things about myself. At the same time, he probably knew the reaction was going to be a funny one, and that there would be more to come from it than just the lesson he was trying to teach. Through it all he was right on both accounts, and in the larger picture of things, that one scary goat situation has brought a lot of joy to many friends and family. (a lot of joy, even 15 years later).