One beautiful morning I was drinking coffee and reading my bible, all was right with the world. My cat Scooter had just jumped from my lap to stretch, then he wandered to the sliding glass doors to bask in the sunshine behind the curtains. All was right with the world.
Engrossed with the Psalms, I forgot about him. Suddenly, there was such a commotion and scrabbling I jumped up from my chair. What was that? What was happening?
Scooter comes streaking out from behind the TV leaving the curtains flying in his wake. He was intent on gettingt away from something terrifying. He planted himself between my feet, his sides heaving in terror, and faced his demons from the safety of his Gigi's protection.
I couldn't imagine what it was, probably a huge dog, maybe a opossum, so I went to see what it was. Scooter started yowling encouragement, or perhaps it was warnings I haven't mastered Mau-ese even after loving cats my whole life.
Coming from behind the wood pile was a Queen snake to sun itself on my warm patio. The only thing separating that snake from Scooter was a thin piece of glass. No wonder he scrambled from there.
This snake was minding his own business, trying to warm up from the winter. I wasn't particularly happy he had chosen my patio to do this, and neither was Scooter. I sighed. I hate having to "take care" of snakes. What if they rise up and bite you when you step out of the house? But then, what if their mission is to take care of lounging rodents and roaches so they won't come into your house? What if they decide your home is the perfect place to hibernate and you don't find them until Spring? ACK!
I went out the back door to the storeroom to get a hoe or rake to "take care" of this problem. When I stepped out the door, the snake had curled around the legs of the little table on the patio. He looked up at me and smiled. He smiled at me! For him all was right with his world so he smiled.
This was the same thing that had happened in Louisiana, and now I'm facing the same decision in Mississippi. In Louisiana, I killed the thing, but hated myself for it.
Mr. Queen Snake (I don't know if it was a he or a she!) lifted his head and was checking me out, then he smiled again. How can you kill something that smiles at you? I have a huge problem killing anything other than spiders and mosquitoes, and of course, roaches. I just can't seem to do it; killing a thing that smiles is just beyond my scope of possibilities.
Slowly, I backed away and went for a rake. I'd just make sure that snake passed right on through our yard and kept on going, but I just couldn't kill it. With rake in hand, I turned back to move it along and it was gone. He'd decided, quite wisely, that he'd best find another place to set up summer housekeeping.
Sometimes we react to a challenge with reasonable fear, and sometimes we react with unreasonable fear, without thinking through the situation or checking facts. When we have absolutely no control over a potentially dangerous situation we should scoot between the LORD's feet, fully confident that God will handle it. He will determine if the situation is harmless or harmful; and He will remove the danger or carry us through it.
When we are in control of a situation, then we should stall the knee-jerk reactions and think it through. We should ask ourselves:
1. Is this trouble just passing through or something that will camp out here causing more and more trouble?
2. Should I take drastic measures, or use gentle persuasion?
3. What are the consequences of each reaction?
4. What can I learn from this situation?
Question: Have you had a situation when you've wanted to act drastically but God has urged gentleness?
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