The Legend of Scaredy Squirrel

I have been at war with the hated tree rat population for some time, you might call them squirrels. Often portrayed as cute and smart by Nazi propagandists, they are actually satanic hedonists who get in my attic and party like its 1999. They destroy my bird-feeders and run off my ---well every kind of bird you can imagine. They nearly caused me to burn my own house down about 15 years ago when I decided to fire off some firecrackers in the attic to run them out. Did you catch the word fire in fire cracker? Yes, I did too.

Anyway my passionate desire to eliminate the region of squirrels is just as fervent as my love for a book about a squirrel. Its an illustrated children’s book I like to read to the munchkins around here called Scaredy Squirrel.

Scaredy Squirrel is a squirrel who refuses to leave his own tree because he is phobic about spiders, germs, poison Ivy, sharks and killer bees. He spends his life atop a tree called familiar, on a place called safe. then one day a bee gets too close to comfort and Scaredy falls out. But before he hits the ground, Scaredy Squirrel discovers he is no ordinary tree rat, he is a flying squirrel!

Ain’t Skeered

Last week I was hunting deer on the famous Burk Ranch near Eagle Pass and I thought about Scaredy Squirrel. This trip was a dream for me and it could have been ruined by my ever present fear of heights. The cold front came through and not only was the blind some thirty feet straight up, the little ladder I had to ascend was covered in Ice. While I am sure there was nothing graceful about how I got up there and into the blind, it was powerful for me. I prayed harder than I have in a long time and about an hour later I blasted a trophy ten point and enough does to feed folks at my next outreach.

God wants you and me to conquer fear. If we are full of fear we are not full of passion. If we are not full of passion then we are not full of life. I think it breaks God’s heart when we stay in familiar, safe places bound by invisible chains of fear.

A long long time ago a prophet named Zephaniah promised Israel of a day of restoration would God would not only remove their fear, but put strength in their hands. We don’t use the term slack hand today, but we do use the term limp wrist. It’s associated with the idea of being a weakling or a pansy. When we let God take away our fear he also takes away the thing that keeps us from having zeal and passion for life.

Get out of your tree or into your stand which ever the case may be. None of us are going to be here for very much longer, and we just don’t have time to be bored.

Zephaniah 3:16 in that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not: and to Zion, Let not thine hands be slack.

The Brewer Pastors Open Door Ministries near Joshua and can be found at www.freshfromthebrewer.com andwww.troybrewer.com