Four years ago I stayed in a duplex located in the countryside for about five weeks. Birds sang, crickets cricketed, and I could see a beautiful lake from my front door.
And I was nervous and on edge for five weeks. Drought bit the Texas countryside at the time and it must have brought out the scorpions. I never saw so many scorpions in my life—in the kitchen sink, climbing on curtains, lurking on the bathroom floor, in the garage.
At the end of five weeks the score was Porter 30, Scorpions 0. That’s how many scorpions felt the pain of the underside of my sandal or whatever I found at hand to whap with.
The music of the countryside sounded like: “Tweet, tweet,” “cricket, cricket,” “WHAM!”
“Take that!”
I said the score was 30-0 in my favor but that’s not all the truth. I didn’t get stung but they had me spooked. I was afraid to put my foot on the floor at night without house-shoes. I left my house-shoes on the nightstand or a chair where the little rascals couldn’t sneak in and wait for my innocent toes to wiggle in and stab me with their scorpion stinger.
The truth was that the psychological score was Porter 30, Scorpions 300. They took a lot of joy out of my life.
Although who knows, a mama scorpion who sees a size 11 sandal smash the life out of her beloved young scorpion offspring would probably be traumatized, too.
So maybe it was 300 to 300.
That was why I was a little leery when we moved back into the same apartment recently for five months of visiting churches in the USA.
You know what? The house had been sprayed and I’ve haven’t seen a scorpion, spider or anything except several dead crickets.
And the birds still sing, the crickets, the ones that don’t get too close to the house, still cricket and I’m really enjoying living here. Beautiful countryside. In the morning I step out in front of my house and look at that little lake and praise the Lord.
So, what’s the difference, David? You didn’t get stung last time so what’s the big deal?
The problem is not getting stung. Sometimes being afraid of being stung at any moment is as bad as getting punctured. I imagine the people on death row suffer as much from apprehension of the fatal day as they do the day they are put to death.
Someone said that 90% of the things we worry about never happen. And God helps us work through the other parts.
But, God has given us an imagination which can picture what we think something is like before it happens. So, you can see a nasty little critter plunging his stinger into you and experience it virtually. That hurts too. And hurts and hurts and hurts because we play the film over and over.
You can ruin your life picturing things you think might happen. You can also ruin your life picturing over and over bad things that happened to you.
Somehow I don’t think that’s how the Lord wants us to live. God is the God of hope.
“Rom. 15:13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
So you go to God and you pester Him until He touches you. You praise Him until His presence infuses your heart. He chases the fear and fills you with the power of His Spirit.
Then you’re going to be bouncing with hope.
Instead of envisioning yourself getting stung or going bankrupt or losing your family or messing up royally, why don’t you let God give you His dream for your life? See that over and over.
“But, David, sometimes you get stung in life.”
Don’t I know it! But, God doesn’t leave us. He’s especially close at those times and since He’s the God of hope, eventually His presence communicates hope to us again.
Hang in there, hope’s coming. And if you need help in the meantime, I’ll loan you my sandal.
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Hmmm …
“When obstacles arise you change your direction to reach your goal, you do not change your decision to get there.”-
Happiness will never come to those who don’t appreciate what they already have.
Make sure your worst enemy is not living between your own two ears.
Some people come into your life as blessings. Others come into your life as lessons.” Zig Ziglar
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