The Enemy Close to You
I’ve had four severe reactions to poison ivy in the past three months. Poison ivy spreading and blisters have happened to me since I was a young boy playing in the woods, but I hadn’t had it this bad in over 15 years. My reactions to the plant this summer have been so dramatic that I’ve been placed on steroids twice to help ease the impact.
Every few weeks, a friend or family would notice swelling, a blister, or cream on me and say, “Did you get it again???” It has been a struggle for the folks nearest me to understand how I am getting bit by the same plant repeatedly.
And it wasn’t until in the middle of cutting my grass that my wife’s 87-year-old grandma took a walk around our house last week to spot our entire yard to be riddled with poison ivy. My wife stopped me mid-mow and said, “It’s in the grass. It’s beside the house. It’s even in the flowers by the front porch!”
Poison ivy has threatened me for more than half my life and caused me health issues for this season, and here I am, walking by it, next to it, and right on top of it without a clue. And to make matters worse, I pay $30 a year for a plant identification app I didn’t use!
Indeed, the enemy is closer than I thought, and I’m not talking about poison ivy. I’m talking about my ignorance and laziness that kept me dragging my feet from learning my immediate threats and taking action on them.
“Therefore, everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall because its foundation was on the rock.
But everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its collapse!” Matthew 7:24-27
I’m lucky a poison ivy rash is a minor concern and that I had someone knowledgeable point out the danger in front of me, but I can’t always expect to be as lucky, especially when the consequences are higher.
Nature brings truth and balance. She doesn’t care about a 401(K), what happened at Mar-a-Lago, or what celebrity just got divorced - She will bring reality to your doorstep no matter how inconvenient or unprepared you are to deal with it.
We can never know or be ready for all the dangers of the world, but we can always work to be more capable, reliable, and proactive instead of reactive in the face of everyday adversity.
It starts in our own homes, on our own time, and with our own decisions to better position ourselves to deal with the world instead of being victims.
(P.S. If you’re working in an area with poison ivy, this video taught me the proper way to clean and lower your risk of breaking out)