by Tad Lindley
I have a hard time sleeping in a tent in bear country. I am plagued by visions of the bear’s gaping maw pressing against the thin nylon of the tent until he finds my skull and then gripping it with his teeth dragging me through the wall of the tent before tearing me to pieces. When I eventually doze off, the slightest noise causes me to sit upright scrambling to find my gun. When I realize the source of the sound, I start to relax and eventually drift off again.
That year I brought my dog with me. My thinking was that she would gladly chase off any late night intruders penetrating the perimeter of our camp, and if she couldn’t, at least she would wake us up and we could start getting some lead out there to deal with the situation.
I slept as good as I do at home, maybe better. When I awoke every hour as I normally do, I could hear the patter of her feet passing the tent as she made another circuit around the neighborhood. Then I would drift off again in perfect confidence. I could have slathered my body in bacon grease and I wouldn’t have been afraid of bears.
Man’s best friend
The dog has often been referred to as “man’s best friend”, but the fact of the matter is that Jesus is man’s best friend. The scripture is talking about God when it tells us, …there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24). Prophesying his coming crucifixion, the Lord said, Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends (John 13:15). You will outlive your dog, and your other friends from time to time will disappoint you, but Jesus will never fail you, he is man’s best friend.
In a perfect world, you and I then should be able to every night take the problems that we have been working on during the day, and hand them over to Jesus in prayer. We should be able to let him watch over our camp so that we can sleep restfully. After all, The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them (Psalm 34:7).
Here’s the problem. As human beings, we struggle with a low-level chronic atheism. Most of the time we believe in God and trust him, but periodically, we have these outbreaks of atheistic tendencies in our life, and we begin to worry. Worry robs us of peace. Worry says, “This problem is so big that not even Jesus can work it out for me.” And so instead of getting our much needed rest, we imagine the worst things that can happen and let them overwhelm us, all night long we take people down in our minds, thinking about what we should have said or how we will handle it better next time, and then we crawl out of bed in the morning grouchy and unready for the day.
Living in bear country
Life is full of things to be afraid of. Even if I could magically meet every need that you think you have right now, if I could pay all of your bills, get rid of your loans, fix your kids, fix your marriage, heal you, and fill your freezer, before bedtime, you would still be able to find something else to worry about. We live in mental bear country, but thankfully we have a friend in Jesus, and regardless of the situations that beset us, if we place our trust in him, and not in ourselves, we will have peace: You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. (Isaiah 26:3 NKJV)
Reverend Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel, Alaska.
