Busy people can be stopped.

Consider a single tick—you know, the tiny, brown, eight-legged blood-sucking creature. At the alarming moment you find a tick stuck to your arm or scalp, all other urgent matters vanish. No matter who you are or how important your business, that blood thief has 100 percent of your attention until justice is served. It is shocking to discover that another creature is consuming you.

Imagine my wife’s and my horror this week to find an army of tiny ticks swarming like the Normandy Beach invasion over our front door and across the entire façade of our house. About three dozen had already found their way inside the door. It was like a freaky movie. An old street-dog friend of ours had been frequenting a patch of sun on our porch for several days. While he reclined, the Trojan invaders hatched out of his coat and began their instinctive march upward. Believe me, the sight of a thousand blood-sucking ticks crawling upward in slow motion, intent on finding a vantage point from which to pounce on my family and me, commanded 100 percent of my attention.

Our shop-vac ended up being the most effective answer. It was the first time I’ve ever vacuumed the exterior of my house. While it made perfect sense to me, it must have appeared ridiculous to any casual observers.

As I sucked up the invaders, several questions came to my mind: 1) Are there any “old dogs” that I tolerate in my home and heart that are releasing vermin into my spiritual man? 2) Will I give 100 percent of my attention to thwart the forward march of blood-sucking habits in my life? 3) One tick can stop me in my tracks. Does one sin cause me equal alarm?

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