I have been reflecting a lot about raccoons lately and by reflecting I mean reading every article on Google on how to get them out of my attic. Apparently, coyote urine could be effective, and honestly, at this point, I am willing to try just about anything to get rid of them but I digress. 

As I lay awake last night listening to them scratching the ceiling I realized I have soul raccoons.

See, I didn’t realize that raccoons were in our house until it was too late and I feel like that’s kind of how things happen in my spiritual life as well. For me, it’s the subtlety of things like envy or comparison that have come in and stolen the joy of my heart in the same way that these raccoons have not allowed me to enjoy my home in the same way anymore.

When I first figured out that there might be raccoons in our place, the temptation was to see if it just goes away by itself. After all, out of all the pests, they are kind of cute and their babies are even cuter. They don’t become uncomfortable until you realize that there is a real danger in having them around—they can get really aggressive if they feel threatened, they could have rabies, and their feces could carry deadly or really harmful parasites. This is all compounded because we have five little kids I am responsible for.

Unaddressed baggage is the same in my life; it starts off casual and quickly escalates to then affect all of those around me, especially those I am closest to. If I allow the comparison game to go on I become discontent and overall, get into a really negative spot and it starts to steal the life God intended for me. Eventually, like raccoons having babies, it will end up in “babies” of bitterness, resentment, and ungratefulness. Fun fact, even though baby raccoons grow up and leave they will often return to where they were born to have babies of their own. 

Here is what I realized more than ever, unaddressed things in my heart will wreak as much havoc on my soul as raccoons and the condition of my siding and the smell of my attic unless I do something about them. 

So how do you address them? I often feel like getting rid of my constant comparison is just as hard as getting these cute but aggressive vermin out of my home. I’ve tried a bunch of stuff but deep down I know I can’t take care of this by myself or by my own strength. So I called my father-in-law to help me. God has given him a special gift of fearlessness and experience in this area and the ability to walk with me until these things are gone. 

The same is true for my spiritual life. I need spiritual fathers and the weapons to remove the soul raccoons from my heart. For me, I know the ways to combat these things in the spiritual world are confession, friendship, and bringing to light what is hidden in the dark. God has not made us to do it alone. 

Once we’ve put in the work to get rid of these things, I believe there is one more step to make it stick. I have to seal up those weak entry points. I have to make sure that I am not leaving myself open to the places where I can let these things fester. I need to put in the work to make sure that my heart is guarded against the things that steal my joy and discolour my life. But, in the spiritual life bringing more of God into those areas is far more pleasant of an adventure than experimenting with coyote urine.