The Pastor's Desk
"Pulling Down Strong Holds and Building Up Relationships" (2 Co. 10:3-8)

August 29, 1999

The Back Yards of Our Lives

Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh--

Phil 3:2,3 (NIV)

Which of these two signs should I post on the fence, which surrounds my yard, watch out for those dogs or beware of dog? Let me share with you a true story I read. In North Carolina there was a man who owned some dogs. They happened to be Rottweilders but they could have been any breed of dog. This man also was a grandfather, he had three grandsons, and they had come to visit him and his wife. Somewhere in the course of their visit the boys went out to play ball. In the course of them playing ball the ball happened to go over the fence and into the back yard. This is the yard with the dogs. One of the boys climbed over the fence to retrieve the ball, he didn't make it. The boy was mauled to death by one of the dogs.

Can you imagine how this grandfather feels? I believe the grandfather felt his grandsons were very secure. He had a fence around the yard. He probably posted on the fence one of the signs called out above, the sign's warning of the impending danger. The fence was built to keep in the menacing figures that lurked within. Oh how tragic it is to trust that we have everything under control, only to have them come back and be a source of haunting in our lives.

How many of us have dogs in our back yard? Things we think we have a secure fence around, a sign posted. Some of us are walking around with bitterness in out back yard, anger in our back yard and the list could go on and on. We have said to ourselves, 'if you read the sign and don't climb the fence everyone will be everyone will be alright.' The sad thing is someone did read the sign but they climbed the fence anyway. You say then that they got what they deserved. Oh, how unchristianly an attitude we exhibit in our lives.

We have a grandfather whose whole world has been fractured by the dogs in his back yard. His relationships throughout his family have been irrevocably altered all because he desired to keep some dogs in his back yard. Is there something we are holding on to in our flesh that we need to let go?

Rev. Michael E. Coleman

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