The Secret Sacrifices

I boiled a pot of water yesterday, and then realized I didn't need it after all for cooking. What a waste. I sighed as I let it cool on the stove.

Doesn't it seem like life is like that pot of water? You try to do something good, and no one notices that you've done it -- or worse, there's a negative consequence! One of my favorite sayings is *No good deed goes unpunished.* :-) It's discouraging, and you may wonder why you bother when it won't make a difference.

And yet...

As I finished preparing dinner, I started thinking about that pot of water. Once it had cooled, the water looked just the same in the pot as before it had boiled, but it was now sterile -- in a mysterious and invisible way, that water was now *superior* to unboiled water.

Similarly I believe that those secret sacrifices we make may make more of a difference than we realize. Those sacrifices honor God, if nothing else, and may even be seen by Paul's *great cloud of witnesses* (Hebrews 12:1-2). I believe that everything we do for right motives, no matter how insignificant or seemingly without result, is accepted -- no effort is ever wasted. Those secret scars of the heart, that no one sees, that bleed without ceasing -- they are all observed and counted.

I was reminded of the line *they also serve who only stand and wait,* and looked this up on google. This line comes from John Milton's poem "On Blindness," and seems fitting for this discussion. We serve God, not because God needs to be served, but because He is worthy, and we take pleasure in acknowledging this.

On His Blindness

WHEN I consider how my light is spent
E're half my days, in this dark world and wide,
And that one Talent which is death to hide,
Lodg'd with me useless, though my Soul more bent

To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, least he returning chide,
Doth God exact day-labour, light deny'd,
I fondly ask; But patience to prevent

That murmur, soon replies, God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts, who best
Bear his milde yoak, they serve him best, his State

Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed
And post o're Land and Ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and waite.

John Milton (1608–1674)

There's a Mouse in the House

'Tis that time of year, and there are mice in the kitchen again.

I open the drawer to find the evidence: the corner of a new bag of brown sugar gnawed through, little black specks, you know. It's always a pain to deal with this. I pull out all of the silverware, the knives and all of the cooking utensils, the waffle iron, the coffee maker, the air popper for popcorn. Then I change my clothes into whites and bleach everything, wiping off the shelves and the counters and the walls so that the fumes are thick and acrid. Everything that tolerates it goes into the dishwasher. We live with a silverware tray on the counter for a week, and it drives me crazy because the kitchen is torn up and hard to work in.

There are at least three general kinds of non-feline mouse-elimination devices: poison, glue traps, and snap traps. Each has its advantages and drawbacks. I don't do poison because it takes awhile -- the poison is coumadin, I think, and this causes uncontrolled bleeding. If the mouse dies in the walls you're stuck with a bad smell (ever pragmatic am I). So I'm left with traps.

Traps need a dab of peanut butter to entice the mouse to approach. The glue traps are definitely easier to set: you simply put them down. However, I've been less than happy with the results. The peanut butter is usually licked clean, but that's about it. Sometimes the glue trap has been pulled into the area behind the drawer (where the heating pipes run -- don't ask). I can't remember ever actually catching a mouse, but imagine if the trap does, it's pretty unpleasant for the mouse -- he will die through a long, painful process of dehydration.

The snap traps, on the other hand, are quite intimidating to set. I just have one hint for these: DON'T PUT YOUR FINGERS ANYWHERE NEAR WHERE THE TRAP WILL SPRING. Trust me on this one. To set the trap, you pull a strong spring back and secure it with a bar that purposely barely holds -- when anything touches the trap, the bar comes loose. The spring often snaps as you're setting it, and it's startling and scary.

These traps are like life, aren't they? Often we face at least two solutions to a problem: one solution will be easier to do, the other is intimidating in its radical nature. However, the gentler solution may not work, and if it does, it may take a long and painful process to actually complete its job. The intimidating solution, on the other hand, while tricky to implement, sure works when it IS set correctly. I always use the snap traps, despite their scariness. The mouse is dead quickly without suffering. Overall, the radical solution seems to be the best choice.

Think about these mousetraps the next time you must figure out how best to solve a problem. This analogy doesn't work for every situation, obviously, but maybe it fits for more situations than we might have courage to implement.

SNAP!