Tug-O-War!

It is an annual event. The elementary school where my youngest son attends holds "Track Day" at the end of the school year. This fun day at the high school track is complete with 100 and 400 meter dashes, relay events, long jump, hurdles (small ones), jump rope competition, and a softball throw. The kids have a blast competing against the students from the other classes in their grade. The highlight of the day is always the tug-of-war! At the end of the track meet the classes divide up and pull against one another to find out who is the strongest class of the year. It is hilarious to watch the kids grunt, strain, and pull with all of their little might. They love it! They scream and dance with every victory and moan with every defeat. The biggest event of the entire meet is when the winning class gets to challenge the parents and teachers. Each year the scene is the same . . . 30 to 40 little kids strain and pull against the 20 adults. Each year the strategy is the same . . . the adults don't really pull so that the kids think they are about to win and then right at the last moment the adults destroy the challengers pulling them with ease across the line! That is how it always goes, until last year. Last year my oldest son was in 5th grade. The 5th graders battled it out until the winning class was selected. Then came the parent challenge. Like always we grabbed the rope. Like always we allowed the students to move the center flag precariously close to the victory line. Like always we then leaned into the rope. Like always . . . wait . . . this time something different happened. We couldn't budge them. In fact, with all of our strength, yells of "1,2,3 . . . pull", and strained back muscles, our eyes filled with horror as the 5th graders worked together and dethroned the adults. We walked away in shame. I walked away with a lesson. Little things add up. One 5th grader would have been no match for us. Forty, on the other hand, were just too much last year (this year the parents reasserted their dominance).

The same thing is true in our spiritual life. How many of us allow the little things to add up and ultimately pull us into defeat? If it had been one little thing we would have smashed it and walked away victorious, but we allow a lot of little things to strategize and pull all at once and we are swept off of our feet and into shame. Scripture says it more eloquently, "It is the little foxes that destroy the vineyard." Little things become big things. Little things become strong things. When we allow them to compound they become mighty. So my question to you today is "What is pulling on you?" Maybe you haven't given it a second thought. Maybe you have brushed it off as trivial and something that you will deal with later. Stop and reexamine that little thing. It may just be a 5th grader on steroids! It may just lead to defeat if you don't put it in its place (under your feet) right now. Pull hard. Pull long. But for your sake, pull smart!