Heat waves shimmied in rhythm from the basalt lip of rock. It was hot, I was bone tired and — with 21 miles behind me — I still had eight more to go.
A moment’s rest wouldn’t do any harm.
I eased around a wide lip of rock on the bank of a rushing river. Looking for a semi-flat surface to plant my bottom and feet, I said out loud, “Are there any snakes here?”
As it turned out, there were. Two coiled rattlesnakes were already looking my way.
With a tip of my hat, I carefully backed away and looked for another location.
Snakes are a repeated theme in the Bible. Mentally going over the snake pattern in scripture, beginning in Genesis 3, I did some pondering when I got to Paul’s encounter with a viper in Acts 27.
It was a classic worst-case scenario. First came the hurricane. Then came the shipwreck.
The vessel carrying Paul and 276 others ran aground on a sandbar close to shore, and began to break up in the furious waves. While everyone else panicked, Paul kept his head — and his faith — encouraging his shipmates that God would protect them. And He did. Every one of them made it safely to the beach.
Acts 28:3 records that as Paul collected wood for a bonfire, a highly venomous snake attached itself to his hand.
Watching this drama unfold, a mixed crowd of island natives and refugees immediately made a judgment against Paul, expecting him to drop dead any second. Surely, they speculated, he had done some evil deed, and now karma had caught up with him.
Paul, however, with an almost casual disinterest, shook the serpent off into the fire and went about his business, causing no small stir among the people.
In a matter of minutes, the apostle’s reputation among the islanders soared from murderous goat into a magnificent god. But Paul wasn’t about to fall victim to the erroneous judgment of the culture — or become overly flattered by the fickle crowds. He refused to be either a goat or a god.
I can see many similarities between Paul’s experience on that island and the situation Christians find themselves in today.
Our once calm, cultural sea has been whipped into a furious tempest, and many believers have been storm-tossed or shipwrecked altogether. Who can calculate the losses?
Pastors and churches are no longer the driving force for moral and spiritual stability in our multi-religious, polytheistic and diverse culture. Marooned and snake-bit, we are scrutinized by a culture that assumes the worst.
Will the church finally be silenced and drop dead at any moment?
Some fervently hope it will. Others go beyond wishing to actively working for its demise, believing the church to be poisoned and doomed.
The apostle Paul didn’t allow a series of multiple disasters to slow him down. He patiently endured his trials, knowing God would be faithful to His Word.
The Lord had told him he was going to Rome, and nothing was going to keep him from that destination. It wasn’t so much that nothing could stop Paul, as it was that nothing could stop God’s will from being fulfilled through Paul.
When you really stop to think it through, it doesn’t really matter whether the culture calls the church — or you and me — a goat or a god. Neither brand is accurate. Neither can derail us.
We need to shake off both the attacks and the flattery, and go about the King’s business.
Our adversaries may attempt to poison and paralyze us — to mischaracterize our motives and our character. But our mission and purpose remain unchanged.
And so does our destination.
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