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Mean as a Junk Yard Dog

by Jerry Ousley  
6/12/2007 / Christian Living

Over the years I have had several experiences with dogs. The particular situation I'm about to share with you happened a long time ago when I was a kid (I think I remember being a kid once).

I was filling in for a friend of mine on his paper route while he and his family were on vacation. The route was mainly in town so it wasn't a hard job except for one house. It was near the end of the route but what made this house so special was that they had a basset hound that made it a hobby to eat paper boys. He was always waiting for me and would send me racing down the street nipping at my tires as I peddled as fast as I possibly could.

Sometime during the middle of the week my bike went on the fritz so I had to "hoof it." It happened to be during the week of Thanksgiving and so the paper was thick with all the holiday advertisements.

Things were going very well until I began getting closer to, you know where. I started looking about two houses up the street, scanning the yard, porch, and anywhere else I could for that dog but he was no place in sight. I very quietly opened the gate and tiptoed up to the porch. Carefully I laid the paper down then tiptoed back to the gate making sure it was shut behind me. Half-way to the next house I breathed a sigh of relieved that I had actually lived through this ordeal, when all of a sudden I heard that unmistakable basset bark that had been burned into my brain that week.

I turned to look and sure enough that dog was running after me for all he was worth. The time had come for all good paper boys to take their stand. It was live or die and so I grabbed one of those thick Thanksgiving papers, raised it above my head and waited for the fight of the century to begin. When the dog was about five feet away from me I let the paper fly through the air with all the strength a little skinny boy could muster. It struck the dog squarely between the eyes to my utter amazement. He yelped in pain, a far different sound than that of triumph I had heard during the beginning of the week.

The dog turned with his tail between legs and quickly fled back to the safety of his own yard and I'm pretty sure I saw him stagger a time or two as he went. I had beaten him! The rest of the week was a breeze! By the way that dog never bothered me again.

Life is a lot like that situation. The devil runs us every chance he can get, trying to make us flee in fright from his terrible bark. Often he's successful. We just do what comes natural and run as fast as we can. What we fail to realize is that the devil is just like that dog. He'll chase us and the highlight of his day is getting the best of us.

What we need to learn is that the day is coming when we are going to have to take a stand against him or just give up and let him have us. When we choose to take a stand what we find out is that the power of Christ in us is stronger than the devil could ever stand up against. The Bible says, "You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world." (1 John 4:4 NKJV).

The devil will hurl all sorts of problems our way. What we've got to do is learn to deal with them but not by ourselves. When we know Jesus Christ as our Savior and allow Him to be just that to us, then we find out what the power of a Savior can do. Then we'll just see who's really "mean as a junk yard dog."

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

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