I have a friend who owned fainting goats. Yes, there is such a thing as a goat that faints. Here is what he shared with me: 'They are really fun to watch and make great pets. A goat will eat poison ivy, poison oat, poison sumac, and clean all the trees up as far as they can reach. They will manicure a pasture removing unwanted brush.
Fainting goats will fall over lifeless when scared. The process is they get scared and begin to run away, then their back legs stiffen up and straighten out and they fall over. They will lay there for about a minute or two and then jump up as if nothing happened and go about their business. The bad thing about fainting goats is they are defenseless. If a predator gets in the pasture, the goats will faint and become a meal lying before them.' After losing a couple of goats my friend started looking for a solution. 'The answer was Leon. Leon became the new addition to the pasture. Leon was our llama. Llamas are different animals. They have a tendency to spit. Leon did not spit. He had good manners. In fact, my friend would walk up to the fence and whistle and he, Leon, would come running up to see him. He was gentle and even would let my friend to pet him when he was in a good mood. But Leon was one tough dude.'
Llamas are ready to fight anything at any moment that they deem a threat. 'When Leon would see something that appeared out of place or possibly strange in his pasture, he would lift his head and run straight toward it. Leon with his head up was over six feet tall. With eyes glaring, Leon would stare down anything he perceived as a potential threat.'
My friend told a story about Leon. 'One day he watched a big black, Rottweiler walk along the fence. The dog was pretty much minding his own business until out of the corner of his eye he saw Leon running to the fence. The dog took a strong stance of holding his ground, but Leon was getting closer and closer. Soon you could see the dog decide, 'I don’t know what that is, but I’m getting out of here!' Leon stood with his head over the fence until the dog was out of sight. Leon was quick to confront threats.'
This story made me think that some threats must be confronted. We have a spiritual enemy whose driving objective is to destroy us and our walk with God through Jesus Christ! He wants to destroy our personal relationship with God. He wants to destroy our marriages, children, family, finances, hopes, dreams, and future. Anything and everything of value in our lives is a target of this enemy. It is cowardly and foolish to do nothing. This spiritual predator must not find easy prey in us. Amen!
Thank God for the Holy Spirit who lves in us! The Holy Spirit is like Leon. The Spirit of God rises within us ready to take on any potential threat. (...the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world First John 4: 4). What we must do is allow the Holy Spirit to have freedom in stirring us up to see the threat. Once the threat is identified then through the Spirit’s empowering, we confront the enemy head-on by rejecting his influence, deny his temptation, refuse to follow his leading, and do what the Spirit reveals is right. Get back into church, get back to daily prayer time, get back to reading your Bible, and become a Leon who is a spiritual protector of what is right.
John T. Catrett, III Scissortail Hospice Chaplain 306 North Main Street, Suite E Bristow, OK 74010 918.352.3080