You’ll Put Your Eye Out

I couldn’t help but laugh and remember the recurring line from the wonderful holiday movie A Christmas Story. Set in the 1940s, nine year-old Ralphie had only one thing on his list—a Red Ryder BB rifle—but he’s told over and over how dangerous they are and how he could shoot his eye out. Despite the danger, he continues to make his voice heard.

With the line “you’ll put your eye out” running through my head and my right eye closed-yet-fluttering in pain, I put my plate down, got up and ran to the sink to flush my eye with water. The foreign object – the croissant flake -- was dislodged in moments.

Yes, as I bit down into my homemade breakfast sandwich, a hard, sharp flake of the overly-toasted croissant flew upward and lodged in my right eye. In all the years since the invention of croissants, have you ever heard of anyone being injured by a flake? It just sounded like something satan would do when he knew I needed to do a lot of reading that day.

Apparently I haven’t been doing much that bothered him until now. Throughout our ministry there have been times that activities didn’t go as planned and we knew satan wasn’t overly thrilled with the fact that we were swiping people from his claws and leading them to the One who would give them Eternal Life. But he never really seemed to spend much time on us.

Sure do miss those days! Since I’ve learned that Atlanta is a hub for exploiting American children, God has given me opportunities to speak in churches across the nation on sex trafficking--encouraging them to get involved by ministering to the victims and reaching out to the offenders within their congregations. We must shine light on the darkness that satan has hidden there. No wonder he has kicked discouragement into high gear.

God has begun to bring those who victimize our children to judgment. Despite the danger, we must open our eyes and continue to make our voices heard.

Do you fix your eye on such a one? Will you bring him before you for judgment? - Job 14:3