To most of this generation Barney is a purple talking dinosaur, but to my generation Barney is known as Mr. Fife. The most popular show on television for 9 years was The Andy Griffeth Show featuring Andy Griffith, Opie (Ron Howard before Happy Days), Aunt Bea (Francis Bavier), Gomer Pyle (Jim Nabors), and of course Deputy Barney Fife (Don Knotts). Andy was always the voice of reason, even in the early shows where he sounded more country than ever. On the other hand Old Barney always made a mountain out of a molehill. He always saw giants where there where grasshoppers. He was always looking for action instead of enjoying his peace and quiet.
That kind of reminds me of folks I know in this generation. Always building mountains out of molehills. Always looking for the bad instead of the good. Always wondering if they should get the other person before they get them. Always looking for trouble when there is none and always hoping to catch somebody doing bad so that they can look good. How prophetic were the writers of those shows. I'm sure that every Andy Griffith fan knows that in that latter years of the program when Old Barney was gone they repeated the theme of many of their scripts just with different characters. It never was the same though with out Old Barney, Those pop eyes he would give, that hump in his back, never being able to get that bullet out of his pocket, always bumbling, fumbling, and making mistakes made Don Knotts a character we will always remember.
You know some Barneys too, don't you. Their eyes pop out when they get excited. They always know more than anybody else, even when they don't have a clue what their talking about. They also go looking for trouble where there is none and if they can't find any they stir it up. And guess what? Sometimes we all have a Barney moment. It's those moments where we loose control and do something or say something we shouldn't. It's those moments when we see giants that really don't exist and wonder how we're going to deal with them. It's those moments when we just don't want to deal with reality and the fantasy that we're facing causes fear that justifies are lack of desire to deal with the task at hand.
It's when we have those Barney moments, we need to have a Joshua moment:
Joshua 1:5-7 "There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them. Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper withersoever thou goest."
God says three things to Joshua that help us deal with the Barney moments in our lives:
(1) I will be with thee.
(2) I will not fail thee.
(3) I will not forsake thee.
So if you're having a Barney moment today and fear is ruling over you, or you are seeing too many giants, let the Spirit of God send the same Spirit He sent to Joshua. Courage is a whole lot better than fear and I'd much rather have a Joshua moment than a Barney moment.
No citizen's arrest, but a "Get behind me Satan" will be the rule of the day!
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