I’m not joking around here. Tortilla chips can be used as bait. Possibly any chip, potato or chocolate in make, and other varieties of crumbs, segments, or particles of food make great bait when you own pets. My dog Scooter is just old. I mean he is so old that I need an algebraic calculator to figure out his age in dog years; nonetheless, he still finds his own unique ways to be an obsessive tenacious jack russel and this is his latest trick.
I work from home (obviously). In my home office I have an open design desk with only support legs underneath the table top where my internet phone, dual display monitors, printer, gel nail polish uv light, mug warmer, speakers, and cell phone charger are all located. A large amount of cords, connectors, string, lint, and adaptors stream like a chaotic electrical traffic jam stopping only at my big black box on the floor below my desk. This is where my half blind, half deaf, tumor riddled, bad pair of back legged dog decides he should traverse. Keep in mind I also have a chair mat on the floor in that specific area which does not encourage any sort of traction for my sweet boy of arthritic unrepair but that does not stop him! 
No amount of crumbs, no potato chip is too small, and no piece of crumpled candy wrapper can go without him tiptoeing disastrously through my web of technical wiring. He has done it quite often lately and the last few times he can only escaped this cord webbing by yanking out plugged in devices on his way out of trouble. Doesn’t matter if I’m on the phone with a business call. . .nope that’s when he yanks the cord out from the internet phone jack. If I’m in the middle of a not yet saved draft . . time for the computer cord to be the one pulled out.
I thought I’d offset the problem by duct taping most of the cords together at as many points together to keep more out of the bull in china shop’s way but to no avail. He yanked the bulk of them out when he tripped over them two times in a row reaching for a 1/2″ tortilla chip. This is what I’ve learned.
In some ways as stupidly sweetly stubborn as my crazy dog is he is not unlike a lot of us. Not the eating at the desk too much part but the getting tangled up in a mess because of one tiny bit of temptation notion.
There have been a few times in my past of being a Christian that I was tempted by something, someone, but I couldn’t act upon that temptation without getting in some kind of big mess. In fact it’s safe to say that I couldn’t even come close to a temptation without bad stuff tripping, choking, surrounding, preventing me from getting back out of the messiness without being affected spiritually. We often talk about forgiveness as Christians and we thank God for his forgiveness. When you have got caught up in the devils web unsuspectingly over some tiny piece of ego boost, financial gain, or emotional high it can be quite difficult to break clean of the past and accept God’s forgiveness that you so frequently tell others about. It can be hard to forgive yourself and it is always hard to forget. No matter what we can or cannot do within our own minds God still does consistently. Just like my unconditional love for my bothersome Jack Russel, God never stops loving us or helping us out of the very same quick sand that we should have walked around. Even when we don’t have the strength and integrity to stay on the right track God still yanks us out and brushes us off with a pat on the back to remind us how much he loves us unconditionally.
My husband said to me “Why don’t you just keep Scooter out of your office when you’re working so he doesn’t keep disconnecting or disrupting your desk?” Well, I can’t do that. Poor old Scooter has enough he can’t do anymore I can’t take away that too. Even though I know he’ll probably do it again and again I’ll just deal with it. My heavenly Father does it all the time. He gives me the tools in his word to be aware of spider webs that entrap us and snare us. If I don’t use those tools then I’ll end up in a mess again. God is good and all the time even though we are not. You don’t need a chip on the floor to see that.
