17 Jun
It Shall Be a Duel…to the Death!
Basement cleaning day….the mere mention can send shivers down a spine. The year was 1994. The setting: a dimly lit basement. The scenario; a young boy, with his siblings, slaving away under the oppressing tyranny of their parents….I was that boy. This is my tale…
Every gloomy Saturday morning we rose at sunup, descended the long sinister steps deep into the basement which, without fail, would resemble a nuclear testing ground. Sweat dripping from our brows, we slaved away until the task was completed, then graciously accepted an entire ONE dollar reward, completely ignorant of the sick and twisted operation our parents were running.
Being a rather lazy six-year-old, however, I put my mind to other things to pass the time. Such as tying my younger sister to the doorknob with rope, and watching her panic when she heard my father’s approaching footsteps, or tormenting my brother repeatedly.
My father, suspecting the hours worked didn’t quite match the progress, began inspecting every so often, with the vicious threat of withholding our hard-earned dollar should ever we be discovered not working. The solution was simple; fool around until the sound of footsteps cued me to return to work. Problem solved!
One morning, too lazy to clean, I decided to duel my brother to the death! Grabbing a plastic sword I yelled, “Have at thee, yonder coward! Or dost thou be chicken!” Turning to face me, he grabbed a sword of his own. I smirked, “Ha! So thou art brave indeed! I grant ye that. But death shall flowith quickly from thy blade!” But then, for some reason (perhaps the way my sword danced like Patrick Swayze through the air), Mike’s eyes bulged and he collapsed to his knees. Realizing that victory was within grasp, I leaped onto our toy table. “Ah! Ye whimpering pup! Eat blade!”…then I heard a deep cough.
I turned to face to see my dad standing in the door with a rather unpleasant disposition. The scam was up. Gulping, I mustered up one last bit of courage…,”Dad…you may take my dollar…but you can never take…my FREEDOM!”
Oh man, what a spanking…
I realize now that my little game was pretty foolish. As silly as it may be in basement cleaning, I’ve discovered that I’ve sometimes carried that same attitude into my relationship with God as well. Is the way you act ever affected by who you’re with? Or by who’s watching? I’ve been guilty of sometimes being the ‘super-Christian’ at my church, but then my actions and talk are often different when I’m around my peers at work or school. I’ve realized that I can’t do both.
God is gazing down from Heaven watching our actions, both with Christians and with non-Christians, and He will hold us accountable for them. I once heard this quote: “Your true character is determined by how you act when no one else is around.” What is your true character? Could God walk into our lives at anytime and be pleased to find us hard at work, or would He be disappointed to find us just fooling around?
What do you think? Join the discussion »
Filed in: Journey, Relationship
About the Author
Daniel Blackaby is a second year college student at Mount Royal College, in Calgary, AB. His biggest passions in life are music and literature. He plays guitar in a Christian rock band and also plays bass guitar, drums, and keyboard.
Apart from playing music, Daniel loves to listen to all types of music and has over 700 CDs on his iTunes. He admits he’s a huge nerd who loves to read and enjoys collecting classic literature. He loves to hang out and have a good time, but his primary goal is to try and live life to the fullest and glorify God in everything he does. You can contact him by email at boonster@telus.net.
Read more about Daniel here.
