Guard Duty

Good Monday morning! It even seems like one of those Mondays this morning. Fog and gloom, back to work at the crack of doom. Crack the whip, seal the ship, dip the oars to the drummer's boom. Feel the bite, hold it tight; labor, labor, fear the boss's might. Tolkien must have written that goblin part of The Hobbit on a foggy Monday morning much like this one. Mr. T may have been inspired on a morning such as this, "I pity the fool... that has to go up the hill to work today." John Milton left unfinished the third part of his epic trilogy, Paradise Lost in the Fog. Whatever would I do without local weather conditions to get me started on a Monday morning? By now you might be wondering what it will take to get me stopped.

The December before my position was eliminated, I did something that brought forth a reaction far out of proportion to the action. Since then, I have wondered at times if that may have been a sign of what was to come that I totally missed. We are told to be vigilant and watchful, and the fear of missing signs in these end times can perhaps cause us to become hyper-vigilant. We may see a sign in something that does not mean what we think it means. Jesus told the disciples many things that would be but the beginning of the end times and not the Tribulation itself. In not knowing what is a sign and what is a 'labor pain' we may become fearful of missing something kind of important, like, oh, the Rapture for example. We need not fear this. God tells us to watch, but not to fear. We will not miss anything the Lord would have us to see, if we will do our part by remaining watchful.

This guard duty we are assigned is not to be like the hunted animal. We are to walk in peace with our Lord and Shepherd, remaining watchful and not fretting over the 'what-if's'. Some days our guard duty is beside the still waters; other days we walk in the valley of death's shadow, but always our Lord walks with us. One of the fears of my guard duty back in the day was in getting caught doing something wrong. But what if instead (oops, this is not one of those 'what-if's.') of trying to sneak up on the guard to catch him in the wrong, the officer took it upon himself to walk the patrol alongside the guard and give him wise advice and comfort? Our leader in this long patrol is not one whom we have to watch out for as well. In my many guard duty hours I was never caught by the enemy, but at times I did get caught by my own side. They used the best method they had to keep us alert, but we can see that Jesus has a better method. One of walking beside us as we catch glimpses of that roaring lion in the darkness. Our Lord helps us to remain alert, but not in panic mode. Walk in peace with our Lord Jesus.

God be with you,
Bucky