We're going on a bear hunt!

We're going on a bear hunt. We're gonna catch a big one! What a beautiful day! We're not scared.

Uh-Oh! Grass! Long, wavy grass! We can't go over it, we can't go under it... we have to go... THROUGH it!! Swishy, swashy, swishy, swashy!!

Kezzy, Meya, Anela, & Kayla love that story. I've read it a million times to them and have become quite amazing at reading it entirely too animated if I do say so myself... and I do say so myself. I'm even breathless by the end of the story.

But I've come to love this little story because isn't this how life is?

In the battle between the spirit and the flesh, as much as we'd love to go over it and be above it, we've set ourselves up for failure when we attempt to build ourselves up to be above the struggle.

As we try to go under it and fly under the radar, we get sucked up in it with the curiosity of wondering what we're missing.

But when we decide to suck it up and go through it, though we may cut the bottoms of our feet with that wretched long wavy grass, get beat up by the winds of that snow storm, die a death or two in that frigid and deep river, get ourselves stuck in that miry mud that cakes between our toes, end up breathless running through that dark forest stumbling and tripping with scratches and cuts throughout our bodies, or braving the cave to come face to face with the ginormous bear, we all end up running back into the safety of that comforting place-- the arms of our Father.

Some journeys last longer than others and we may face more than one journey at a time. Sometimes it takes longer for us to return home from that dark cave. And yet we know Who's been on that journey holding our hand the entire time through the swishy, swashy, swishy, swashy, swishy, swashy's, the who-woo, who-woo, who-woo's, splish, splosh, splish, splosh, splish, splosh's, the squerch, squish, squerch, squish, squerch, squish's, the stumble-trip, stumble-trip, stumble-trip's, or the tip-toe, tip-toe, tip-toe's, and yes, especially on that sprint all the way home.

The battle between the spirit and the flesh continues...