Little Foxes

by Andrew Cromwell

One little change can make a big difference. We all know it’s true. A little change in tone can turn a compliment into an insult. A little change in attitude can turn a negative experience around. A little adjustment to your pace of life can mean the difference between crashing and burning and lasting for the long term.

Little things turn into big things. That’s just how it works. Little babies turn into big strapping adults. Little puppies, so cute and cuddly one day, become ugly, slobbering yard destroying beasts the next. And little expenses (think Starbucks, $0.99 app store purchases, and bank fees) turn into big money problems.

King Solomon, known as the wisest man who ever lived, once cautioned the vineyard owner to take care to keep the little foxes out of the vines (Song of Solomon 2:15). Foxes are little animals that generally seem harmless. But in a vineyard, the foxes eat the grapes and thus destroy your profit. Left unattended, one little fox turns into a colony that will eat all the grapes and leave you with nothing.

The solution to a fox problem, of course, is to get rid of the foxes (or never let them get in to begin with). But foxes look cute, they have a way of disappearing underground whenever you go searching for them and they just don’t cooperate with attempts to send them on their way. That is precisely why the vineyard owner will often ignore the foxes until they become a major problem; because by that time enough profit has been lost that they become unavoidable. But once you are infested, the solution is neither easy nor inexpensive.

What little foxes have you let live in the vineyard of your life? Perhaps the little foxes are cute and cuddly now, but if left undealt with, they will turn into a destructive force that will threaten to ruin your life. Perhaps there are financial foxes that keep you from getting a hold of your money because every time you go out you find you have spent more money and you just never seem to be able to get ahead. Or maybe there are relationship foxes that come in the form of bad attitudes and selfish behaviors you have allowed yourself to get away with and as a result the good fruit in your relationships are being threatened. Or it could be the foxes of addictive behavior that, for the moment, is under control but down the road will cease becoming a choice altogether. 

If we are wise, we will take Solomon’s advice and deal with the little foxes now, before we have to rip out the entire vineyard just to take care of a simple fox problem. 

Keep Yourself

by Andrew Cromwell

Life is full of ups and downs. No one is immune to challenges and problems. Even the people who we consider to be the most fortunate have to face the reality of a broken and sin-filled world. But how do we deal with this contradiction of the good and the bad in all of our lives? 

Some people become jaded and bitter. Some do their best to ignore and minimize the problems and live in a kind of denial. Some spend their lives and resources trying to organize their world in a way that minimizes the possibility of being hurt. 


But none of these options is the right one. All of them fall short of the way that God intended us to respond to the challenges we face in life. 

There is a tiny book — a letter really — towards the end of the Bible called Jude. It’s no more than a single page, but it is rich with content. Found tucked towards the end of its twenty-five verses are a few lines about enduring in a difficult world.

But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

There is much to glean from these two short verses, but the centerpiece is the phrase “keep yourselves in God’s love”. 

At first glance, it might seem that this is a contradiction to the main teaching of Scripture. For Jesus made it clear that God’s love for us was full and complete and that there was nothing we could do to change the way He felt about us. Christ came and gave His life for all human beings, even those who have not accepted Him! That’s the kind of love that Father God has for us.

So why would we need to “keep ourselves in His love”? Well, it is certainly not about earning God’s love (for we could never do that). Instead it is about experiencing God’s love. And that is a challenge sometimes!

There is something about this world that is corrosive to our very souls. When we are banged up by life, we often tend to lash out against God or withdraw from Him. Before we know it we have lost our way. Jude knew that. And that is why he encouraged his readers to keep themselves in God’s love. 

Keeping yourself in God’s love is a constant activity. It is something we are engaged in. Far too often, when the bad stuff in life happens, we throw a pity party when we should be throwing our arms out to God. The very moment when we are deciding that God has forgotten us and we start walking in the other direction, is the exact moment when we need to be walking towards Him! 

Imagine yourself like a ship in the ocean. The ocean is God’s love. You are always in it. But there is a section of the ocean where the sun is shining through the clouds and there in that place you actually experience — you feel — God’s love. When you are sailing in the sunshine, you sense His nearness and you feel connected to God. But when the storms of life blow you out of the sunshine, you start to feel disconnected and distant from the Father. He still loves you, He still has you surrounded in love, but you don’t feel it.


And this is where the “keeping” comes in. When you are blown off course, you have to pull out the sails and work the tackle and sometimes even stick the oars in the water and fight to get back into the sunshine. This is work. When the wind is blowing it takes ten times the effort to stay in the sunshine. Where a small course correction would have kept you on course when the weather was fair, now it seems nearly impossible.

How do we keep ourselves in God’s love? Well, Jude says that too. We “build ourselves up in our faith” and we “pray in the Holy Spirit.”  More on that next time!