Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

• 1 Corinthians 10:13

The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

• Exodus 14:14

“Forget the former things;
    do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
    Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
    and streams in the wasteland.

• Isaiah 43:18-19

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

• Joshua 1:9

The dog in the photograph might look like a miniature Doberman Pinscher, but the dog’s DNA is 40% beagle, 32% Walker coon hound, some miscellaneous other hounds, some Dalmatian, some Chow-Chow, and some Australian sheepdog.  No Doberman at all.  My son and his family rescued three dogs who were near death from starvation, probably abandoned on the side of the road in a forest area.  They thought they would give them to a good home, but no one seems to want them.  The DNA test was part of a package deal from the veterinarian in getting the dogs from near death to healthy.  Only one of the three has any visible sign of a rib cage.  So, they are healthy, and probably nearly full size, beagle size, with the crazy jumping characteristics of the Walker coon hound.  I have had both breeds in the past.

The dog in the photo is the boy, Yeggs Benedict.  My son named him for the Yeggs family in my short story series.  They call him Bennie.

I may write about the noisy girls in the other cage, but I will save that for another day.

Yeggs Benedict has a lower voice than the girls and he does not bark until it is feeding frenzy time and all three dogs become whirling dervishes.  They need to be outside dogs since they are three-quarter hound dogs, but my son lives in town, and his fence is not up to code.  Besides, the back yard where the fence is, is the domain of their chickens.  I may show a picture of them someday also.

But back to Yeggs Benedict, Bennie.  The cages for these dogs are a wire cage that gives them some room to walk around, but not that much.  They are taken out of the cages for exercise and to do their business in the front yard – on a leash.  To keep the dogs from hurting their feet, there is a plastic tray on the bottom.  Since the dogs are still puppies, they have accidents on the plastic trays, which are easier to clean than cleaning the floor.

But Bennie loves to scoot back and forth, pushing his plastic tray out from underneath him – almost.  He scoots the tray until he has barely enough space to sit.  Even then, he sits quietly until the girls start to get Bennie riled up.  This is not an occasional thing.  As soon as you clean out the cage and put the tray in place, he starts working until he paints himself into a corner.  Bennie knows that walking on the wire hurts his feet.  So, he sits content in a small spot where he is unable to move.  And he sits there without complaining, until he needs to go outside or he needs to run around.

When I saw this bizarre behavior, I thought of how we paint ourselves into corners all the time.

The concept of painting oneself into a corner is to paint the floor of a room, but starting at the door and working your way to a corner on the far side of the room, away from the door and any window where you can escape.

Pharoah thought the Israelites had done that at the Red Sea, but God told the Israelites to wait and see what God was going to do.  The Red Sea parted and they escaped.  The pillar of fire and pillar of smoke prevented the Egyptian army from recapturing their former slaves.  And then the Red Sea went back into place, drowning the Egyptian army.  By the way, I saw a video where divers found Egyptian chariot wheels on the bottom of the Red Sea where they think the Israelites crossed.

But God promises us an escape route, from troubles or from temptations (troubles in the making).  But the best thing to do is to not get ourselves cornered in the first place.

I have read a lot of books about writing stories, and they say to always have a plan when you paint the protagonist into a sticky situation.  It is not proper story telling if a “miracle” has to happen to fix the problem.

And we should never get painted into a corner and need a miracle.  But remember that God is the miracle worker.  Just call on Him continuously.  Plan what you are doing before you do it and talk to God about it well in advance.  Do not paint yourself into a corner where only a miracle from God can get you out.  God may opt to allow you to suffer the consequences so that you will learn not to make that mistake again.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.