Copper In The Gut & Clay In His Hands

Yesterday, I copper bolused my goats. At least, I think I copper bolused them. It's hard to tell when you're wrangling creatures that nearly match your weight and have jaws that they are only too ready to use to your digit's demise.

A copper bolus is quite simply a capsule that is loaded with tiny bits of copper wire. After the capsule dissolves, the bits of wire lodge themselves in the lining of the goat's stomach and dissintegrate over the course of 8 months, steadily releasing copper into the animal's system. The copper, in turn, will correct deficiencies in goats. Control of parasites is the #1 reason to copper bolus your goats.

To give you an idea what it looks like when I do this, I'll try to describe it to you:

I bring a cup full of capsules into the garage along with my balling gun (which shoves the pill down the throat). Each adult goat only needs two capsules, but I bring more knowing some will get caught in their molars and chewed and wasted. I enter the barn and catch an apprehensive goat by the collar and lead it into the garage despite the loud protests of the captured goat's friends left behind. I say a quick prayer that the procedure will go as smoothly as the diagrams in a book say, and then I act like it will be so. I straddle the goat and tie the lead rope around my belly so that even if I lose my grip on the goat, it cannot bolt without dragging me with it. I place the capsules in the end of the balling gun and insert it into the goat's mouth. This doesn't work, even though the book says it does. So, after my failure, I use the balling gun the way I think it should be used. I place it sidewise like a gag in the goat's mouth, shove the pills against the roof of the goat's mouth, and then pour water down it's throat. Sure, it gurgles it's protests and lunges to get away from me, but it's just a dumb, self-willed animal that has no idea that I'm trying to give it the best and most healthy life.

Often, I find that I have a sensation of God straddling me, gagging me, and flushing things into me that I don't understand. People say that Jesus is a gentleman because he knocks on the door of your heart instead of kicking it down. I agree. However, once you open the door and call him Lord and say,"I am yours, do with me what you will," ... interesting things happen. He accepts the position of being what He is best at ( a potter, a consuming fire, a teacher, etc) and gets to work.

The Bible is filled with passages much like the calm diagrams in my books painting a picture of what it should look like to bolus a goat. Reality can often be that we are stubborn, fearful, and self-willed and won't trust that God is working things together to help us. If we won't relax and trust, God will often have to use His tools in a more creative way to ensure that His goodness will come about in us. More than once I've forced Him to have to roll up His sleeves and get down and dirty with me!

Proverbs 3:5-8 says," Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones."

All good things come from God. Trust Him. You let Him in once before when He knocked at the door of your heart because of His irrisistible wonderfulness! Yield to Him. Things will go MUCH smoother. Let us not be like a dumb beast that fears nearly everything, but let us be good sons and daughters of our Lord who fear only Him...and even that fear is one of reverential love!