Filed under: Uncategorized
When I was a kid I was able to go to a very cool summer camp. One of our activities involved riding horses and generally messing around in the woods, which is a fine activity for a kid. On returning to our cabin, the counselors made us strip down and check each other for ticks. Ticks are small and relatively insignificant creatures until they get under one’s skin. Once locked in, they suck blood, create a nasty welt that itches like mad at the very least. At worst, ticks carry Lyme Disease and assorted other feverish nasties.
We were sternly warned that to miss a tick or leave one behind (no pun intended) was a grave error that would not go unpunished. A cabin-mate could get deathly ill from a tick bite. So we checked the body with diligence.
Being all males under 10, this led an assortment of loud and ridiculous pranks that I will leave mostly to your imagination. Suffice to say that a couple of us learn to time a certain bodily function to cause our brothers to be deeply grieved and suffer great alarm. No doubt you will agree that “tick-picking” was a necessary evil that followed the fun of horseback riding.
A recent, and ongoing, task at a church with which I am involved reminds me how often the leader’s job is to find and remove ticks from the body. A tick is a blood-sucker. His or her sole activity is to suck the life out of us. When one picks a tick, great care is necessarily exercised. Pull too hard, off comes the head and infection will follow. Me and the boys were taught to remove ticks by first lighting a match, then blowing it out, and touching the hot end to the tick’s behind (now you can imagine our other favorite prank, can’t you?). It works every time–the tick gets hot and backs out. Essentially, you get rid of a tick by lighting a fire under his … uhhh .. rear. (Here’s the medically approved method, by the way.)
No one likes to pick ticks off his or anyone else’s body. At least no one normal likes it. Ironically, however, when circumstances force a leader to excise a tick from the body, some people will accuse him of being a dictator or of gaining pleasure from the work. Those accusations are lies and should not be tolerated. When leaders do not remove the ticks, the body will suffer disease, and it can be fatal.
Leaders pick ticks.
1 Comment
After reading the first three paragraphs of this blog, I was sure that I knew where Dr. Allen was going with his story. Needless to say I was wrong.
But what his story of the boys picking ticks off of each other reminded me of was how we, as brothers and sisters in Christ, examine each other and give each other biblical instruction/correction. Everyone needs brothers and sisters to “get his back” in keeping him accountable to “live a call worthy of Christ.” In many ways, we rely on those closest to us to keep us free of ticks (sins) that slip our notice.
The other clear connection is that refusing biblical instruction is like refusing to allow a comrade to remove a tick…both can have dire consequences.
Comment by Ben Northcutt May 9, 2008 @ 12:14 am