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Yesterday, we took one of our newly acquired pups, Pancho Villa, in to get his man bits removed. I'm hoping it makes him a little less obnoxious. For the record, my husband has been worried about my thought process ;)
When we picked poor Pancho up, he had his tail tucked between his legs (probably trying to protect the area where his man bits used to be... sadly for him, the effort came too late) and he was looking mightily humiliated with his cone of shame around his neck.
Poor guy looked like a furry lamp.
Now I know that the cone is important. It keeps Pancho from trying to tear out those itchy stitches as the area heals. The last thing we want is to have to take him back to the vet for new stitches. Of course, I might be tempted to just superglue the incision instead of driving the hour plus it takes to get to the vet. I've superglued my own deep wounds just to avoid having to go to the doctor. The only problem with that is I have a tendency to get a bit messy with the glue and usually end up attaching my fingers to themselves. One time, I glued my finger to my eyebrow. Don't ask.
Pancho would probably really hate it if I accidentally glued his, uh, man bits sack to his leg.
So, what is the point of this? Is there some sort of message to all this talk of man bits and lampshades and glue? Yes!
It has occurred to me that, just like Pancho, we all wear a "cone of shame." We have our sins wrapped around our necks, strangling us and making us bump into obstacles, just like that plastic satellite dish Pancho's rocking.
And just like my poor little dog who's a few ounces lighter today, our cone of shame makes us vulnerable. It blocks our vision. Keeps us from focusing. Makes others steer clear (you should see the big dogs running from Pancho now...they're terrified of this creature who looks like a cross between a daisy and a squished Oreo).
As we bump around through life with this thing around our necks, we can't help but feel like everyone is laughing at us. Pointing fingers. Snickering behind their hands and covertly pointing at our misery.
Maybe they are doing that very thing. But they have their own cones strangling them, their own circle of sin bringing shame.
And here's the big BUT (haha) here... BUT, we don't have to wear that cone of shame forever. There's a way to get rid of it and free ourselves from its burden. Yep, you guessed it--ask Jesus to take it off!
"Oh, but it's not that simple," you argue. No? Why do you say that? Because it is just that simple. It's as easy as a prayer:
"Lord, I'm sorry for (insert sin here). I'm sick of carrying it around. The burden is overwhelming. Please take it off me!"
And He will take it off of you. Gladly, too! There is nothing our Creator loves more than to have His children come to Him with their burdens and lay them at His feet. He takes them away, removes that cone of shame, and sends us off free and much lighter!
We just need to remember not to put the darned thing back on.