Call for Help You Can Count On!

JANUARY 13, 2012 Call For Help You Can Count On!

On this “Friday with Phyllis,” I’d like to tell you about my friend Lisa, who’s also my egg lady! Whenever I stop for eggs my world gets bigger by learning how to hold carrots for the horse or how to pick up the rabbits, but last week was singular! Lisa has two gorgeous Partridge Cochin roosters who strut their stuff with lots of fluff, but it was a little rough for one last September. Lisa’s husband was out of town and in the middle of the night, over the air conditioning, she somehow heard a ruckus out in the chicken shed. She grabbed a flashlight and went to find a raccoon lurking in the hen house. He’d dug his way under the door and scrambled out the way he’d come in as soon as Lisa put him in the spotlight! Her light also revealed a badly mangled rooster cowering in the corner, reeling from his predator’s attack. His head was a mess because the raccoon had him by the head. “He was almost gonna be dinner,” she told me.

Now I’m hearing this story last week, four months later, while the roosters are strutting toward me from across the yard, as happy as you please. Even with Buster, the Corgi, barking to ward them off, they kept coming! It turns out they recognized Lisa standing next to me and figured she’d go get some corn. Which she did. Buster was ushered into the house, BTW, so I could get the REST of the story right next to these beautiful multicolored, large, fluffy feathered birds with fully feathered legs and feet. I had noticed one was a bit leaner than the other, but otherwise they were identical. So now I knew what had happened!

Talk about a close call. Lisa isn’t sure how she heard the squawking over the noise of the air conditioner, with the windows closed, but she and the rooster are glad she did. She saved his life. In fact, when I told Lisa I was using this story today, she said she’d tell the “boys,” the rooster brothers…so they’d have something to crow about!

When trouble digs its way into your life in a moment of physical, spiritual, emotional darkness, do you squawk like the roosters did? I hope so, maybe not that loudly, but in some appropriate way because it’s good to let it be known you need help. It can be any threat to body, soul or mind that alerts us to danger. The question is….. who hears our cries for help and shines a light into our situation? [The raccoon heard the rooster’s cry…no help there.] We want the one with the best light, don’t we, to expose what’s going on and rescue us? And WHAT if we don’t see it coming and there’s no time to squawk?

In either case, the Bible speaks to that. Hebrews 13: 5,6 "God has said, Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you. So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” The rooster was helpless. He couldn’t run for help, couldn’t save himself. Lisa had to intervene, stop the attack and get the rooster to safety. It took months for the rooster to heal and it took this incident for Lisa to secure the area under the door of the chicken house.

In 2 Cor the Apostle Paul refers to God as “The God of all comfort…Who comforts us in all our troubles.” There’s no limit to what or how God will intervene in our close calls, the attacks against us. When He shines His Light..the Light of the world, Jesus Christ, into your life, through prayer or Bible study for example, it sends away dark thoughts and circumstances. Like the rooster, we need outside intervention. We can’t save ourselves from attacks. So call on God, in the Name of His Son, Jesus Christ…Expect Him…and trust His timing and mercies in your behalf.

And now a little plug for the February 3 & 4th Women's Day of Renewal at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Collinsville, IL. ”Responding with Faith” is the theme. We’ll look at finding faith for our freakouts with the insights of Psychologist Dr. Melanie Wilson who teams up with me on the stage! All women are invited to this fabulous event, the 12th annual WDR at GSLC in C’vle. Expect God to shine His Light on your freakout so you can respond with Faith. His Holy Spirit gives you the faith…you have that", It’s a given," as they say. But you’re still scared, hiding in the corner of your nest, your hen house, behind your thoughts about what freaks you out. Your job, stepping out with confidence knowing your weakness, your scars may show. Like the rooster beaten up by the raccoon. But guess what…like Lisa’s flashlight shined into the rooster’s corner and scared away the raccoon..God’s Light, His Holy Spirit shines into your dark too. You have choices about how to respond to freakouts. Find out what they are at the Women's Day of Renewal. Contact: goodshepherdlutherancollinsville.org