What are you Fighting?

Just in the past few years my father has planted grapevines in his yard.  He's always had an affinity for all things green and growing but just over the past decade has he introduced fruit trees and grapevines into his landscape.  He's got peaches, plums, blueberries, and just recently added a blackberry bush.  He meticulously prunes and waters each one, hoping to produce a great fruit at harvest time.  The same is true for his grapevines.  This year in particular he took special care in nurturing them.  He was attentive to them year-round and when they started putting on fruit, they were loaded.  We were so excited - there were going to be more than enough grapes for all of us! 

A few weeks ago my mother was walking through the fruit trees and noticed the grapes.  They were full and plump and were looking just as they should.  She picked a handful and realized they weren't quite ripe enough - but in another week they'd be perfect.  The only problem was, in another week, there weren't any.  In just a couple of days, actually.  My father went back to check their ripeness - and they were gone.  That's right, gone.  Every single one of them.  The vines had been picked clean and not a single grape was left for my dad's enjoyment.  All of his hard work and dedication had been for naught.  He was sick and we were all sick for him.

He immediately blamed the squirrels and birds that show up in abundance around his fruit trees and we all started talking about what preventive measures we could take next year to assure they stayed away.  Ideas of placing scarecrows around the vines and maybe even using netting to cover them came to mind as we schemed about how to thwart the pesky rascals next year.  Then we started hearing of sightings of another kind of prowler in the neighborhood.  My daughter had seen one just the week before in my parents' front yard.  My cousin reported seeing two in her yard, which is adjacent to my parents' property, and right next to the grapevines. Maybe it wasn't the birds and squirrels afterall.  

Maybe it was deer.  Yep, deer.  We never would have thought deer, but they were apparently all around his property.  Plus, it made more sense.  The vines had been picked clean, every single grape completely gone, not just pecked like a bird would do.  And there wasn't any remains left on the ground, and squirrels always leave a mess behind.  It seemed the culprit wasn't the birds or the squirrels afterall - it was most likely the deer.

With a new enemy to blame, the plan of action changed as well.  Scarecrows might work for the birds and squirrels, but they might not keep out the deer.  But an electric fence would!  Armed with more knowledge about his enemy, my father could better prepare for battle, beginning with the proper choice of ammunition.  It seemed an electric fence was going to be his weapon of choice.  (If you live in our neighborhood and happen to see a deer, you might want to warn him to steer clear of the grapevines next year.)

When we're fighting the enemies in our lives, its a much easier task if we know who it is we're fighting against.  If our battle is with our weight, it's not going to do us any good to cut up our credit cards.  And on the flip side, if we struggle with our finances, diet and exercise are not going to help us sort out our spending.  If you're a compulsive hoarder, chances are that a Weight Watchers meeting isn't going to help you. 

It's kind of like having symptoms but not a diagnosis.  Doctors can only provide proper treatment for an illness if they know what they're treating.  It won't do you any good to have an appendectomy if your gallbladder is the source of your problems. Knowing your enemy and facing it head on is the only thing that can help lead you to victory. 

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."  ~  Ephesians 6:12