go looking for snakes

Today in the One Year Bible, we read about Paul getting bitten by a snake. We read this in Acts 28:1-31. Paul is gathering some wood and a snake hidden in the wood bites him. The superstitious group says to themselves, "He must be evil, and now even though he survived the shipwreck, his evil found him out and this snake came to kill him."

But then he doesn't die. So they change their minds and decide he's a god. Fickle bunch.

And many take this, combined with Jesus's teaching about snakes and poison, to mean that we should play with snakes and drink poison, and if our faith is real, we won't die. But notice that Jesus never says to do these things.

There's a bigger lesson here, though. This thinking doesn't just apply to snakes and poison. It applies to suffering in general. Some people find out that suffering brings us closer to Jesus, and that suffering is one of the ways that God uses to form us into saints, and they decide to take matters into their own hands. They wrap barbed wires around their legs and tighten them until they draw blood. They whip themselves, literally, with knotted cords, in order to suffer. They intentionally get sick with whatever malady is going around in order to draw closer to Jesus.

That's like going looking for snakes to play with. That's not the point. Believe me, suffering will find you. As the great Dread Pirate Roberts taught us, life is pain. Anyone who says differently is selling something. But seriously, you will suffer in this life. You don't have to bring more suffering on yourself. You will love, and you will lose. Pets, family members, heroes, friends... they will get sick and suffer, and then eventually they will die. And this will cause you suffering. Not to mention all of the other things that will happen in your life.

I don't say these things to bring you down. This suffering comes along, and God uses it for good in your life. You don't have to go looking for snakes because the snakes will find you. And when they do, God will turn their bites into something that transforms you into a saint. Like He did to St Paul.

God, thanks for using our suffering to make us saints. Remind us not to go looking for it.