Killing the Snake

I killed a snake yesterday. I was outside doing yardwork and heard someone yell. I ran to the back and heard just one word, "copperhead!" I ran to the garage and got a shovel and a machete (I could not find the snake-hoe, so I had to improvise). When I got back there he was trying to slither away, but I caught the back of his tail with the shovel and injured him enough to slow him down. Then I brought the shovel full force on him and ended his poisonous existence. Some critter in the woods after dark tonight will have a meal (if any of them are willing to eat a copperhead). The whole event took about sixty seconds.

Afterwards it made me think about the time a few years ago when I found a dead rabbit in the yard, and one of her kits was left by itself just a few feet away. We took the kit and put it in a cage. We fed it for a few weeks and then released it back into the wild, hoping it would be able to survive on its own. Now, I am sure you know that there is a clear difference in these two events. In the first the snake, was a deadly threat to each of us. In the second, the rabbit was no threat at all.

Do you perceive your sinful habits this way? Do you think of your sinful habits as threats to your life, or just as annoyances that you want to avoid? If we truly do see the level of threat that our sins have on our souls (cf. 1 Peter 2:11) then we will react towards them like I did with the snake; quick, decisive, and merciless. Rabbits and snakes are not created equally and God does not have the same purpose for them. One can provide food for us and the other is a danger that we must avoid.

Unless you are already there, then change your perspective on your sins. View them as threats that must actively be destroyed. Do not nurture them, or protect them. Do not release them into the wild so that they can come back later. Only the spiritual disciplines can overcome these enemies of your soul. Only through your intentional and active resistance to them will you ever conquer them.