It was up to God to show me
Just how I was to live my life,
To reveal to me my purpose
And show me who would be my wife.

For hadn’t he fed Elijah
And all those people on the mount?
I knew that he would care for me
If my life was going to count.

I would never beg for money
Like all those preachers on TV.
But I would teach the multitudes,
The ones that God would send to me.

And then, one day I heard God’s voice,
It came to me out of the blue.
He told me where I was to go
And told me just what I should do.

So I boxed a few belongings
And went far out into the woods.
I would serve God as a teacher
And have no need for earthly goods.

First, I made a lean-to shelter
And just sat down upon my box.
When, on the path, I saw movement.
It was a little crippled fox.

Back in the trees I heard a noise,
Then there emerged a large black bear.
He brought a rabbit to the fox,
Walked off, and left it lying there.

Was this God’s way to let me know
Just what he meant for me to be?
This tiny little crippled fox,
Is that the way that God saw me?

Next day I watched the little fox
As he, once more, lay by his den.
And then the bear came from the trees
And fed the little fox again.

Then I knew this was the lesson
That God had wanted me to see.
So I sat down and I waited
For someone to come and feed me.

Two days and nights I waited there.
I was in a terrible mood.
If I’m to be God’s crippled fox,
Then who’s supposed to bring me food?

Again I heard the voice of God,
It came while I was musing there.
“You weren’t supposed to be my fox,
I wanted you to be my bear.”

This is a poem about selective misunderstanding. It’s something we all learned to do as kids. How many times did we say, “But Mom, I thought you said ……..(It has been said that “Mom” is the only one syllable English word that your teenager can say in three syllables). Here we have a man who wants to dedicate his whole life to teaching God’s word. In exchange he wanted God to meet and answer all of his challenges, the first being a constant food supply. It was easy for him to assume that the fox was to be his example. How about you? Are you a fox, or a bear? Remember, Noah got a rainbow, Abraham got circumcised.