Doubt and a mink.

Wings fluttering what seems like a million miles per hour suspending the gracious hummingbird in mid-flight outside my picture-window. I found it to be beautiful with his thin, long beak projecting a length out of proportion to his tiny body. Quickly, the little creature amidst of my admiration flies straight up into the sprawling blue sky with the same force Willy Wonka and Charlie busted through the factory-roof in Willie’s home-spun version of Dorothy’s modern day enclosed hot-air balloon.

I love hummingbirds with their gentleness, speed and agility all wrapped into one. For me, seeing one of these flying gems is a form of sudden serendipity.

But wait! Doubt sets in. Did I really see to my eyes’ delight an actual much sought-out hummingbird among the towering flowers? New Jersey had an onslaught of cicadas this year, my doubting mind thinks, maybe it was just a cicada.

Damn doubt! Have you ever doubted something when you are one-hundred percent sure of something? Seeing is believing. What happens when you see and still do not believe?

An awful feeling sets in. It robs you of your faith. There are spirits of doubt that are born of the enemy. Satan himself. Even Springsteen empathetically writes, “God have mercy on the man who doubts what he is sure of.”

God have mercy on me. I know I witnessed an immense flapping of wings hummingbird style yet I am unsure. I specifically admired the delicate bird’s long slender beak with his head tilted back as he levitated three feet above the dry ground. I know I saw a hummingbird on a happy summer-day. Soon afterward, God showed me His mercy when a spirit of doubt set in over me as I question whether I saw an eye-pleasing hummingbird or simply an unwanted cicada although my eyes SAW a hummingbird.

Two days later God shows me something ultra-rare. No, not the 800 pound black-bear within a stone’s throw of me that I was blessed to witness the same week. The black-bear is common in the most northern part of New Jersey and there is nothing else to mistake that giant wondering ball of fur with. He showed me something I only witnessed twice in my whole life.

Here is the mercy and my redemption. And I have no doubt I saw it. Less than 10 feet away underneath the old rickety wooden-bridge Texie and I took space upon, a mink cautiously looks up at us with its dark beady eyes as Texie barks uncontrollably fiercely tugging on his leash as if he is a prized hunter chasing his fleeing prey.

I tell some friends about my second in a life-time encounter spotting a wild mink and some suggested maybe it was just a weasel and not a mink. Google’s pictures of mink match exactly what I saw taking cover under an enlarged dirtless-root overhanging the bank of the slow running stream beneath my feet, a wild mink.

I saw a mink! Now that is reason for doubt. Could it have been someone’s ferret that escaped? Nope! I know and I am convinced I saw a wild mink.

My prayer after the hummingbird experience is God please release this spirit of doubt that is overcoming me. Sure enough, God redeemed me. He showed me something worth questioning when a double-take is in order. Some people questioned if I really saw a mink or was it “just a weasel.” I have no doubt I saw a mink. Praise the Lord! My spirit of doubt evaporated quicker than steam from a tea-pot that has been whistling at full blast.

What are you doubting today? Do you doubt something that is true? Satan’s mission is to steal, kill and destroy. Jesus says in John 10:10, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” The thief tried stealing my joy of appreciating God’s abundant-life. Life made evident to me through breath-taking nature.

Damn doubt. Crush it; crush it under your feet! Crush it now. I believe the timely hummingbird event was to show me my doubt and that it is unjustified.

I was experiencing doubt of something in my life I believe God spoke to me about. An awful spirit of doubt came over me recently causing me to question myself of whether I am hearing God when He tells me something good in my spirit or am I just hearing what I want to hear.

Through God’s voice, my doubt has been shred the same way a skilled surfer shreds the waves beneath his feet with a man-made fiberglass board displacing the powerful waters for a smooth ride. Do you have any doubt? Crush it! God speaks.