Don’t get trapped!

"Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap.”  (Luke 21:34)

A woodchuck took up residence under my deck.  Cute little fella, as far as woodchucks go, but I don’t want him living under my deck. The odds are he’ll burrow next to the basement wall.  That den he might craft for himself under there would be nothing but a channel for ground water.  Ground water running toward the house is not good.  He’s got to go.

I borrowed a live trap from a friend.  It’s basically a cage with spring-loaded doors on both ends and a trigger pad on the bottom of the cage.  Woodchuck steps on the trigger and WHAM! - he’s caught.  After that, the plan went, I would just load the cage in the trunk, take him way out in the country and release him.  He would be happy and I would be happy.  I set the trap up right astride the little path he’s worn across my backyard to the deck.  Unfortunately, that same path is used by a skunk at night.  Guess who showed up in my live trap over the weekend.  From my position, this created a real predicament.  There just is no good way to get an angry skunk out of a live trap without something bad happening to him or to me.  Eventually I had to call an animal removal service.  The technician did an excellent job of removing the skunk with no damage to the skunk and no need for aggressive laundry treatments for either one of us.  The next morning Mr. Skunk was transported to a nice new home in some far away woods.

But from the skunk’s point of view, that experience must have been pretty scary.  He was on his nocturnal rounds with only one thought in mind:  find food.  With winter coming on, laying on extra fat is important.  Eat a lot.  Get it now.  When winter sets in it will be too late.  And then right in the midst of his anxious search for food he stepped on the trap trigger, and both ends of the live trap slammed shut.  In an instant he was caught with no way to escape.

This little incident played out on the very same weekend that we were observing the second to the last Sunday of the church year, also known as Last Judgment Sunday.  This was a thought provoking coincidence, to say the least. 

Suddenly, like getting caught in a trap - Jesus said that’s how the Last Day would be for those who were either partying too much or worrying too much.  Both of those have the same effect, don’t they?  Substance abuse has the effect of taking one’s mind off really important things, such as being spiritually prepared for eternity.  The anxieties of life do that, too.  One can get so caught up in the immediate demands of life that thoughts about eternity get pushed to the back burner.  There are, it often seems, more urgent things to worry about. Being in that situation will have eternally disastrous consequences when the Last Day comes.

And make no mistake, it is coming.  It will come unexpectedly.  Jesus said so.  And for those whose hearts were drawn far away from God by the pleasures and worries of this life, that day is going to slam shut like a trap.  In an instant, people will be caught with no way to escape.  And on that Day, no kindly rescuer will show up to extricate those so caught and take them to a better place.

As the church year draws to a close, let’s keep in mind that one day, in an instant, this world will draw to a close, too.  Jesus would prepare us for that moment and keep us prepared by keeping our hearts fastened on him.  There’s no secret to how he does that.  It’s actually quite simple:  stay in the Word.  Be a regular guest at his Holy Supper.  Make being in God’s house each week a priority.  Wake up every day and go to bed every night remembering that his blood and righteous have prepared us for eternity.