Satan comes to kill, steal, and destroy, and I think the raccoons work for him! On a recent challenge expedition, we made camp on a pristine gravel bar along the Current River. Having camped there many times before with no wildlife problems, I was surprised when, after dinner and group debriefing time, I nestled down for a night’s rest and heard the forest come alive with activity. 

I had dozed off a little when I became aware of a scratching sound near my head. Startled, I sprang up unable to hold in my guttural, school-girl yelp as I swatted at the dark creature next to me. He was furry, wore a mask, and had thievery on his mind. My wild, half-asleep thrashing missed him by a mile, and he scampered away to the safety of the nearby forest. My heart was pounding as group members called from under their nearby tarps, asking if I was okay. “We’ve got coon problems,” I said, still a little ashamed at my craven, raucous outburst. 

​I lay there, hoping the coon would not return and secretly wishing he would go bother someone else. However, within minutes, I could hear him stealthily approaching as the gravel shifted under his tiptoeing paws. With a surge of adrenaline, I spun around and wildly aimed my light toward the sound. There he was…fat, fuzzy, and full of cunning arrogance, knowing full well that I wouldn’t risk chasing him around the forest in my boxer shorts like a crazed lunatic. No, he had calculated to wait just out of arm’s length, waiting for sleep to come to his victim and lull away my vigilance with the aging night and open the gateway to my treasures. 

I threw a small pebble as hard as I could from my awkward, prone position. Of course, it missed the mark entirely and was so small that even if it had landed, it would have only served to remind the raccoon that I was not yet asleep. I flopped on my back with dismay. How was I going to get any sleep with this wooly vagabond stalking us? I prayed and asked the Lord to send one of His mighty cherubim to stand guard over my resting place. I pictured the angelic warrior drawing his sword against my furry foe and chasing him well away into the hinterlands of the wild. Suddenly I heard the raccoon scurry. I turned to see not only one portly, vehement creature, but a host of at least three! It was apparent God’s angels had other business elsewhere this night. 

I made up my mind to leave as I begrudgingly packed up my belongings and vacated to a more secluded area. I went down to the riverside to sleep under the stars amid the security of openness, offered by the gaping gravel bar. I calculated that the menacing creatures would have to be very plucky indeed to venture so far from their wooded fortress to find me here and steal my goods. I lay solemnly gazing at the night sky and slowly dozed off to sleep, enjoying the peace with my belongings securely nested around me. I had everything right here—everything that is, except a few sundry items left behind with the certainty that no raccoon would have interest in. One of those items left behind was my bag containing my journal, my pen, and my bible. 

I slept well the rest of the night, awoke refreshed and eager for the hot coffee already brewing over the fire. After breakfast, the group decided we should all do some individual devotion time since we were beside a beautiful river and the sunrise was glorious. I promptly went to rummage for my devotional supplies—my sitting mat, my journal and pen, a hot sierra mug of coffee, and my bible. Having earlier brought my belongings back to my tarp site, I thought I had everything in one place. As I rifled around in my gear, though, I could not find my bible and journal bag anywhere. I stood there scratching my head. I had just seen it here the night before, but now it was gone. Suddenly my heart sank. I knew instantly and without question that those pilfering, nocturnal, burglarizing raccoons, had stolen my bible! 

“It could be anywhere!” I moaned to the Lord as I sat in my devotional time with nothing else to do but pray. I felt angry, less with the mindless coons who were just living by instinct and more at God, who in His power and might could have stopped the coons from advancing. I mulled this over in my mind, suddenly becoming certain that living without His word could not be His will. I voiced a simple prayer, “God, I don’t believe You want me to spend the rest of this trip without a bible. Lord, would you please provide for me to have Your word?” The words had scarcely left my whispering tongue when I heard His still small voice say, “Go and search.” 

“Yeah, right,” I thought. “My bible is probably miles away, torn to shreds in some filthy animal den.” Then a question entered my mind, again like the still small voice of the Lord. “Is my word worth searching for?” The question cut me to the heart as tears began to form at the corners of my eyes and dripped off my cheeks to the pebbly ground. In my heart, I knew His word was worth all the searching I could ever do. Missionaries have carried it to the lost people of distant regions of the world. It has sailed across seas to all foreign ports and made its way to the desks of dignitaries and the thrones of kings. His word is unstoppable, irrevocable, unchangeable, and wholly available. Of course, I would search for it, but I still had my doubts. As I stood to canvas the forest floor, I remembered the words of Jesus, “Seek and ye shall find.” With that thought, I stepped into the thicket of briars, brambles, and trees to begin my impossible hunt. 

​As I went, I was steered through the woods by the poison ivy patches like a sheep being herded as the ivy forced me to move away in specific directions to avoid contact. With no particular aim, I stalked, but not for long. After a mere few minutes of searching, I saw a piece of trash protruding from a pile of sticks and leaves, deposited there by some bygone floodwaters. As I approached, the trash continued to look more and more like…trash. But, suddenly when I was nearly upon it, I spied the shiny Ziploc wrapping, protecting my journal, and neatly stacked under it was my bible. The contents of the bag had scarcely been molested. I knew that this was a gift from God. He had restored my treasure to me. ​

In John 14: Jesus tells His disciples that the devil comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but that He came so we could have life abundantly. Psalm 119:10-16 beautifully states,

Since the hard part is at the bottom, when we facilitators see a participant scramble beyond this section of rock, we can know that they possess the ability to get to the top, at least tangibly. This is helpful in giving us a barometer with which to challenge people appropriately. We can subtly check the physical ability question off the list and move on to the more important matters of the heart where courage, perseverance, temperance, and self-control reside. 

I was thrilled to see one student after another make it to the pinnacle. I celebrated the victory with a high-five and reminded them of the truth that they really did make it to the top. But when the youth minister started his climb with the same pessimistic mantra, I had to have a little chat with him. “Listen, friend, your students have been saying, ‘I can’t,’ all day. You just said it, too. This is not from the Lord. Your job is to disciple them in the Lord, and part of that means changing the culture. You have to stop teaching them by the words ‘I can’t’ and start teaching them by the words ‘I can.’” He was panting and red-faced as sweat ran down his brow. He nodded in agreement and looked back at the rock with determination. “You are making disciples in the Kingdom of the “I Can,” I added offhandedly. 

Those last words sent chills up my spine as I thought of many of God’s heroes of the faith, struggling with their callings, facing unstoppable foes, and standing against impossible odds. By their own strength, they did not have what it takes, but with God on their side, they could overcome any obstacle. Hebrews 11 provides a list of ordinary people who followed God into the fray to become extraordinary saints, not because they had what it took, but because they served the God of the Kingdom of the “I Can.” I know God revealed His name to Moses as the Great I Am, but sometimes I feel like God’s middle name should be the Great I Can! 

Paul said in Philippians 4:13 that he could do all things through Christ. I’ve heard many burgeoning humanists take this verse out of context to promote a theology that we can achieve anything we put our mind to, but this is worldly thinking and obviously foolish. There are some rocks we just cannot climb. Paul listed a bunch of situations that he needed God’s help to get through. Stuff like suffering from floggings and shipwrecks and starvation for the sake of the gospel. Stuff like having plenty and being in comfort all the while keeping these in their rightful place. With Jesus, the King of the “I Can,” we can fulfill the adventurous life He is leading us through. That’s a life bigger than you could think up or even imagine. 

A favorite example of this wonderful God of the “I Can,” is found in 2 Corinthians 1:18-22:

As I considered their folly, I had to admit that in real life, I often make the same mistake. Planning is not the problem. Putting our plan ahead of the Lord’s plan is the problem. Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” How often do we really trust in the Lord’s plans? He is rarely carrying them out according to our schedule and seldom according to the way we imagine. Paul reminds us in Ephesians 3:20 that God is at work in “exceedingly, abundantly more powerful ways than we can ask or imagine.” That’s a pretty powerful plan. In fact, I cannot fathom its greatness. 

Despite this truth or maybe because of it, I find myself regularly doing one of two things: going about life according to my plan or running ahead of God, tricking myself into believing that to keep in step with Him means to go faster and work harder. I often picture walking with Jesus through life and suddenly realize that I’ve gone on ahead of Him while He patiently waits on a park bench, simply enjoying the fresh air of freedom. “Come on, Jesus!” I say in my head. “We’re falling behind!” But the God of the universe is never behind schedule. He’s never in a rush, and He always has a plan. Proverbs 19:21 is a helpful reminder which says, “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.” 

When you consider your best laid plans, do you lay them out before the Father and ask Him if they are part of His plan? Are your plans simply to rush ahead with the steady stream of worldly traffic? Are your plans of the flesh and not of the Spirit? Are you so caught up in your own plans that you’ve forgotten about the destination? 
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Maybe it’s time for a redirect. Maybe it’s time to sit and rest at the Fathers feet. Maybe it’s time to submit your plans to God and set a course for a new destination, His way.