The Attack of the Stream

75 middle school boys. All nighter. Pizza. Basketball. Xbox. And a whole lotta swag. Put that all together and what do you get?

A BO factory. No lie. Those boys could not have used enough body spray (not even enough to set off a smoke alarm) to get rid of the smell.

I am, of course, referring to a lock-in that my church hosted a few months ago. It was pretty horrendous exciting. They let us use the gym and the cafeteria, but I spent most of my time in the cafeteria, cleaning after the pizza-gore-fest. Since the cafeteria was doubling as the video-game room for the night, it was kept dimly lit, so after two hours in there, my brain was getting the idea that it was time to hit the sack. I was tired, sweaty, and in desperate need of a nap.

I walked to my car at about 2:30 in the morning to try to get some sleep, and, as I soon found out, this was apparently the ideal time to turn on the sprinklers. And since I had parked next to the soccer field, my car was fair game for getting drenched by those laser beams of water. (It doesn't make sense, I know, but just keep reading.)

I got in my car, slightly cracked open the windows for air, and got into a fetal position to sleep, but I soon realized that the sprinklers might has well have been bass drums as far as the sound they made when their streams hit the roof of my car. So I climbed into the drivers seat, and started to reverse my vehicle, only to discover the one thing that would ruin my night. It was so mischievously sneaky that I had no time to prepare myself mentally for it. In my weakened, exhausted, drained-by-middle-schoolers state, I was no match for what  was to occur in the next moment.

What happened?

One single-minded, targeted stream of water gushed through the miniscule opening in my window to drench the left-back side of my head. One might think that such a stream couldn't really be all that powerful, but I'm pretty sure my church contracted firemen to make sure that sprinkler head had enough pressure to blast away anyone foolish enough to walk too close to the glorious might of those surges.

Satan must have taken a tip from those sprinklers, 'cuz he works the same way. He is not a fair fighter. His entire career is focused around attacking you at your weakest - when you're family's being ripped apart, when everyone's abandoned you, when you just don't think you can take another step, when you haven't had a chance to rest in forever. This is when the dirty is done. After all, if he exists solely to "steal and kill and destroy," he will take every low-down, dirty, wretched punch that he can get in while you're already down. (John 10)

But get this: Satan's not a prize-fighter; he's the wimp that gets his blows in after you're down for the count. It's what he did to Job, and it's what he tries to do to us.

So, keep an extra-tight guard in those times when life's got you more weary than you think you can handle, and find your rest in the Lord. It's why he told us, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (Matt. 11)

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