The first known surfer, a snake charmer, and you.

What's the deal with the snakes?

Though I haven't lived in a surf town for five years now, I suppose it is in my blood. Before moving to beautiful San Clemente1 in the year 2000, I knew little about the sport of surfing or the passion it evokes. Like many things, it is more than the equipment or the technique; though both are critical for success, it is a whole lifestyle... a mentality.

When not carrying their boards out to catch a wave, surfers may ride a skateboard to get from here to there. They may build their work schedules around 'the surf' and when it will be good; they say 'dude' and it has nothing to do with a ranch, just a way of relating. Yes, it gets in your blood ... maybe that's why I saw something you might have read right past - just another fly over verse.

The end is near ... of the book of Acts and our study of it... which bums me out, but the last chapter, 28, has some interesting takeaways. But first, it seems that Paul was indeed the first recorded surfer, because when his ship bound for Rome hit a reef and broke apart--the purest description of a shipwreck--Paul made it to the shore of Malta on a board. Paul, the first recorded surfer. Huh, who knew?

Once on shore, Luke then describes the next very unusual scene:

The natives showed us extraordinary kindness, for they kindled a fire and took us all in because of the rain that had started and because of the cold. But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened itself on his hand. 

When the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they began saying to one another, “Undoubtedly this man is a murderer, and though he has been saved from the sea, justice has not allowed him to live.”However, Paul shook the creature off into the fire and suffered no harm.2

First of all, don't miss that Paul jumps right in to help gather sticks for the fire...

which of course, puts him in position for the poisonous snake to attach itself onto his arm. Though its fangs no doubt deposit venom into Paul, he does not die - but rather shakes the snake off into the fire.

Back to San Clemente and me. Until I moved there, I had never encountered a snake. One afternoon, Max, a young neighbor about 10, rang my doorbell and said 'Hi, I thought you should know there is a baby rattler in your garden.' I thanked him and went out to see the villainous creature. And like a damsel in distress, I stood out front and yelled for a couple of neighbor (men) to come and take care of it; no one came. 'What do do?' After all, I was about to drive Dylan to baseball practice and could not let a neighbor happen by on the sidewalk, and suddenly find a rattlesnake in her path.

Going into the garage, I grabbed a shovel, flipped that little sucker onto the street...quartered it, and threw it, piece by piece into the garbage can. Off we went to practice.

Would you believe that one week later, while walking into Vista Bahia to keep score for Dylan's baseball game - I was standing in the parking lot, when someone said, 'Hey, look out, there is a snake hanging in that tree behind you!' Did you know that rattlesnakes can climb trees? huh.

And then there was the day, I stepped up onto my back retaining wall and leaned forward to hang hummingbird food on a garden hook. With one foot in the air, I heard the 'sssss...' and somehow before I put my foot down on it, saw a rattler coiled and ready to strike. Let's just say my shovel came in handy once again.

Snakes.

Paul, barely out of the water, and freezing cold in the rain... now gets bitten by a venomous snake. Wait a second here - how did Paul react to all of this? Because I gotta tell you at this point I would be reminding God that I'm his girl, on a mission from Him! Yet Luke does not record Paul shaking his fist in the air, saying, 'Lord, I'm your man, remember? You tapped me to go and take your Word... to share the gospel with the Gentiles even, which has been hugely unpopular. Lord, have you noticed how my own people have sought to kill me as a result? And still I have obeyed your call. And you told me I would get to Rome - and yet, here I am, tired, hungry, shipwrecked... now snakebitten?'

What are we to take from this?

1) Snakes are real. In our lives, they come in the form of lies whispered by the evil one--lies that will take us down, maybe even take us out. Peter wrote, 'your adversary, the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour.3

2) Awareness is critical. We must be aware of snakes--in the garden or in a tree--symbols of the clever ploys of the enemy to do just what Jesus said he does:

steal and kill and destroy.4 Do not be a fool and ignore the ploys of the evil one.

3) Paul's reaction to the viper speaks volumes, and is instructive for us. Paul never loses sight that he is on a mission from God; he will not be deterred. Compelled by the Spirit of God,5 Paul goes headlong into all that God has for him--no matter if and when it included tough times, painful experiences and suffering.

-So too, no matter what comes at us, you and I must stay the course,

 maintain our position before God and stay on mission for God.

 -and when evil tries to attach itself to us, coming as a detractor,

 distractor, tempter or liar, we must man up and shake it off.6 

4) You and I, believer, must remember this remarkable truth:

The same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in us.7 

Listen to me, just as Paul reminded the Romans of this fact, so too the man, Paul, kept this in mind at all times.

What are your snakes? Or is it, Who? Be aware. Be wise. Remind yourself who you are and Whose you are. Do not be caught off guard, but be ready and proactive, because IF the snakes are going to come is not the point, but rather WHEN. Stand your ground. In Jesus' name.

Yesterday, I was relaying to someone what I was gleaning from Paul at Malta, all about the snakes in my life... and he asked, 'Aren't you afraid of snakes?' To which I responded, 'not when there is a shovel nearby.' My spiritual shovel, you ask? The Sword of the Spirit,8 of course...the power that is in the Word of God.

You see, I know that the proverbial snakes are around, hanging from trees even, threatening to discourage, depress, distract, detour and discount me... but I am on a mission from God - to take the love of God wherever I perceive an open door, whether online internationally or in line at the local grocery store, and often at the gym. And like Paul will soon write, (from Rome), to his young protege, Timothy, I want to say,

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."9 Amen.

Get fired up!  

THIS SONG: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6oLeKG9-fw&list=RDj6oLeKG9-fw&start_radio=1

Christine

no. 64, Acts

1 - San Clemente, California - halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego, on the Pacific Ocean, home of Richard Nixon's Western White House, the Spanish village by the Sea

2 - Acts 28.2-5

3 - 1 Peter 5.8

4 - John 10.10a

5 - Acts 20.22

6 - Taylor Swift, inspired by Paul? hmm

7 - Romans 8.11

8 - Ephesians 6.10-17, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians%206.10-17&version=ESV

9 - 2 Timothy 4.7