change of pace

tonight, in the simple attempt to read, i was attacked by new zealand's biggest fly.

the buzzing literally shook my bed. this buzzing was a blessing for it warned of the incoming danger and imminent attack of the mutant creature. it was not afraid to die.

time and time again it would dive bomb me, leaving me itchy and paranoid. i became convinced that it had developed in similar fashion as the teenage mutant ninja turtles. it had all the tell tale signs of toxic mutation. i half expected it to eat pizza, practice martial arts and speak slang-filled english.

assuming that if it did not speak english, at the very least it could understand it. "come on, land where i can kill you." i found myself saying this out loud to the creature. surely it would understand. it was all i could provide for a strategy, desperate pleas for it to give up (i'm no stonewall jackson).

rising from my bed, book in hand, i decided i would no longer play the victim. i was going to fight back, to mount an offensive. i began to hum a toby keith song.......... not really.

this bug was crafty. suffice it to say that you do not grow to such a state without knowing how to handle the would-be swatter. i'll not lie. many a time during our fight, i did not think i would make it or that i would ever get him. i thought it would follow me all my days, buzzing, making me itchy, terrifying children.

alas, one fateful swing of my book sent my foe sailing through the air, lifeless, behind a radiator near my bed. silence. he had fallen, a worthy foe, a freak of nature laid to rest.

but like many evil villains before him........ he came back.

it started with a buzz. there is just no way, i thought. i ignored it and went to back to reading. yet the buzzing continued.

i began my hunt and found the fly, still alive but having trouble navigating through the tight area. muttering my battle cry -"come on, land where i can kill you"- i finally delivered a fatal blow. i added several more just to be sure, the final shot in the head if you will.

it was only then that i saw the poignancy of the book i was reading. it was a.w. tozer's "the divine conquest." i can think of a title no more fitting for this epic battle against a fly the size of a decent sized grape.