OH, DEER! A LESSON FROM MY RATSCHUND

 As our family was packing the last few items in the van for our trip to Texarkana, our rat terrier/dachshund mix, Eli, darted out of the garage door.  He bolted like a flash toward 6 deer that were grazing in the meadow across the road.  The deer scattered and Eli had his sites on the big buck.  Evan hysterically pursued behind the buck and Eli.  We followed the chase down a trail that leads through the woods to the lake.  Eli was not a bit afraid of the big buck.  Evan and I followed the sound of his high pitch barking and the tinkling of his ID tag on his collar.  We followed the commotion about 100 yards into the woods before we first saw Eli.  He relentlessly tormented the buck.  Twice, Eli scared the buck directly toward us.  I warned Evan that we should always keep a tree trunk between ourselves and the buck.  After about ten minutes, the buck finally escaped my little monster.  Physically exhausted, Eli returned to us.

 

It amazes me that Eli was not a bit afraid of that buck.  He had the buck convinced he was in grave danger when, in truth, the buck could have gored my mutt at any moment.  Why am I not as brave and crazy as Eli?  Why don’t I have that kind of radical faith that I can chase my fears with God strength?  The moral of this story is “it isn’t the size of the dog in the fight that matters, but the size of the fight in the dog.”