HOPE

One of the Mind's favorite movie lines comes from the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, spoken by Aragorn, the rightful heir to the throne of Gondor. It is just prior to the battle of Helm's Deep in which Aragorn and his fellow combatants are grossly outnumbered. A young lad tells Aragorn that he's heard that they won't last the night to which Aragorn replies, "There is always hope." As many of you have seen, they were miraclously delivered and achieved a stunning victory over their enemies.

So for the Christian today. We may be outnumbered and all may appear to be dark and hopeless individually or for all who hold dear the name of Christ. But we were delivered from Satan's power at the cross, and we will yet be delivered from this body of flesh with its weaknesses. Charles Spurgeon puts it beautifully:

"My hope lives not because I am not a sinner, but because I am a sinner for whom Christ died; my trust is not that I am holy, but that being unholy, He is my righteousness. My faith rests not upon what I am, or shall be, or feel, or know, but in what Christ is, in what He has done, and in what He is now doing for me."

SNAKE HANDLING

The recent demise of the "Crocodile Hunter" reinforced the Mind's belief that one should not play touchy-feely with dangerous creatures no matter how carefully we approach them. Wild animals are by their very nature unpredictable, and, as Mr. Croc discovered too late, the best way to approach a lethal stingray is via submarine.

This tragedy reminds me of Moses' serpent experience in Exodus 4. In this case however, the serpent originated as a staff that Moses used in his shepherding duties. When YAHWEH turned it into a snake, Moses reacted like most of us would - HE RAN! As a shepherd he had seen snakes, and apparently this one was poisonous - at any rate he didn't wait to find out. But God told him to grab it by the tail. I can hear Moses thinking, "You want me to do WHAT?" But Moses obeyed, and the fearsome serpent changed back into a staff.

You may be wondering where I am going with this (or not!). A wooden staff doesn't command our attention, but a live snake is another story altogether. Sometimes God takes us out of our safe and familiar circumstances - our staff, so to speak - in order to get our attention. Our first inclination is to run away from and not toward our trials, i.e., Jonah. But it may be the thing that God calls us to do in order to strengthen our trust in Him. Now I don't make a habit of grabbing my circumstantial "snakes" by their tails, but if God told me to do it, I'd like to think that I'd be "foolish" enough to obey Him. If your "staff" has turned into a "snake," just remember that God can turn the "snake" back into a "staff." May we be as Job - "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him."