ON an early summer afternoon, I was finishing my delivery route when I saw her. She was a young whitetail doe only about 20 feet from the road with her hind foot entangled in a fence. She struggled fiercely, but unsuccessfully, to free herself. I felt I had to try to help her, and as I pulled my car to a stop, she intensified her struggle.
I slowly approached the young deer, speaking calmly to her in a soothing voice and praying silently for guidance and help. The deer thrashed wildly as I approached, her panic increasing the closer I got. She was on the side of the fence opposite the road, which provided me the protection of the fence if she tried to attack me.
Expecting the worst, I walked up to the fence and gently placed my hand on her trapped foot. To my great surprise, the young doe immediately ceased her struggles. Even more surprising, she quietly lay on the ground, not moving, as I tried to free her, I realized that my hands were in the wrong position to free her foot, and I had to let go of her to reposition my hands.
As soon as I removed my hand, the deer sprang up in a wild panic and resumed her wild thrashing, but as soon as I gripped her leg again, she lay quietly in the grass. With a bit of effort I was able to spread the wires apart and free her skinned and bloodied leg. When I removed her leg away from the fence and released it, she jumped to her feet and sped across the field to a clump pf trees, her white tail held high like a flag. She never looked back.
That young whitetail doe is a lot like most of us when we find ourselves in trouble. The problem may be of our own making, or it can be the result of circumstances beyond our control. We fight and struggle to free ourselves, but we’re destined to remain trapped without outside help from a higher power.
Unlike the deer, a lot of us cry out for God to rescue us, then continue to struggle, making it more difficult for God to release us from our trap. When we call out for help from God, we need to follow the example of the young deer by ceasing our struggle, laying down quietly, then “letting go completely and letting God..!”
