The doorbell rang. From all around the house you could hear the urgency of the children as we shouted, “I’ve got it!” And when true sibling-style competition is in play, the first to say it would often take second place to the one who actually got there first!

The same was true following the ringing of our family’s one landline telephone: “I’ve got it!” sometimes led to an elbow to the ribs to create an unfair advantage and the chance for that moment of victory when the winner got to say, “Hello, Strohbehns’ residence.” As the youngest in the family, even if I were the first to answer, I generally had to hand off the phone to someone else because I wasn’t sure what to say after the initial “answering phrase!” It would have been better to have let someone else answer the call in the first place!

I was first allowed to answer the telephone when I was four. Yet nearly fifty years later, I find myself figuratively running to an incoming problem or difficulty and shouting heavenward, “I’ve got it!” When I arrive to take care of it and attempt to handle on my own the uninvited guest of deceit, envy, or greed or the unwanted person calling out to me to distract me from what I really need to hear, I find too late that I should have let the One with all the answers take care of it in the first place!

“When Satan is knocking at your door, simply say, ‘Jesus, could you get that for me?'” ~Unknown