A little story…

Once upon a time, long ago, in a land far, far away there lived a young man, with a wildly adorable cocker spaniel puppy.  He woke up one morning, swung his feet over the bed and saw a red stain on his floor.  “What in the world?” He thought.

Tired of cleaning up puppy mess, he dutifully scrubbed the spot clean, but the stain just wouldn’t go.  After some real serious thinking, he covered it with a rug.

Wouldn’t you know, the next week he found yet another spot, on the rug.  Frustrating as all get-out.  He cleaned the rug, but the darned stain still would not come out.

He threw away the rug, and bought a red-colored rug to mask the stain.  “Brilliant,” he thought, “Now I’ll never have to worry about that pesky stain again.”

Weeks passed, and the man no longer saw the stain.  One morning, he woke up and smelled something foul.  He searched for the source and couldn’t find it.

The puppy came into the room at that moment and began scratching at the rug, then scratching at the man’s slipper and whimpering.  He looked up at the man with his puppy dog eyes and the man, annoyed, carried him out of the room and shut the door.

Then he had an epiphany.

“I’ll buy seven rugs, and keep track of which ones are dirty and clean so there’s never a stinky rug again!”

Pleased with himself, he put his plan into action.

Months passed and his bedroom was stain and stench-free.  Then one morning he noticed the tip of his favorite pair of fluffy slippers was red.

And stinky.

“Oh HECKY no!” He bellowed.  He grabbed his puppy, took off the slipper and shoved the filthy shoe in the puppy’s cute little face.  The puppy licked the man’s nose.  Fed up, the man put the puppy down and sat with one bare and one slippered foot, his head in his hands, fuming.

All of a sudden he felt an achy, itchy feeling on his foot.  He looked down to see his puppy staring up at him, pawing his foot, which was bleeding.

Stunned, the man inspected his foot to see he had an open sore on his toe that was becoming infected.

He cleaned the sore and went to the doctor to figure out what was going on.  After running tests, the doctor explained that he had an ulcer on his foot, caused by early-onset diabetes… Caused by years of eating like he was about to die of starvation and the only available sustenance was doughnuts and fried or starchy food.

The doctor explained the sore would heal with proper care but until the man regulated his eating, his health would continue to cause him problems.

The man went home, treated the ulcer, and turned his diet and life around completely.

Years passed.

He sat in his bedroom reading.  His beautiful wife of four years and one-year old daughter sat on the floor in the bedroom, playing with the cocker spaniel, who kept sniffing at and licking the floor.  His wife looked to her husband, concerned.

“Honey?  What’s wrong with him?”

The man looked at the faded red spot the dog was sniffing at and smiled wistfully.

“He’s remembering how he saved my life, sweetheart.”

We can’t afford to constantly mask symptoms of a problem instead of searching out the root.  Ignoring the source of the issue puts lives at risk.

The topic of the day, brought into focus because of the recent tragedy in Colorado, is guns.  People everywhere want answers and fall into one of two camps: We need more guns, so we can protect ourselves, or we need more gun control so the government can protect us.

Gun violence is the stain in America’s hardwood floor.  Gun control laws, more guns are cleansers and extra rugs.  The 2nd amendment is the stained slipper.  In this case, the root health problem is fear.

Our nation was founded in flight and fear.  There’s only one cure for that.  Thankfully, as long as we’re alive our prognosis is good.

What is the root of this problem?

The root is not how the young student ended up with firearms.

It’s not American weapons manufacturing and industry.

It’s not 2nd amendment constitutional rights.

It’s not about who the constitution was written for, which was people who were neither negro nor female.

It isn’t about our founding fathers decimating the indigenous people of this country.

It isn’t about building violence and war into the fabric of a country.

It isn’t about the fear that drove our founding fathers out of their homeland.

This is about something much greater than steel, ammunition and politics.

It’s about life.

Who governs yours?  What power do they wield?  If it ain’t the power to turn a human’s heart from evil to good, careful what you expect.

At best, our fellow men with all good intentions, will have fantastic floor cleaners and a wide variety of rugs, slippers, band-aids and insulin.

There’s only one source of true healing.  Focus on Him, and everything else falls into place.