Today, Paul’s story takes another surprising turn. After going through every trial under the sun and getting shipwrecked, we now add a snake bite to Paul’s long laundry list of hardships he faces. After Paul encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus, he couldn’t do anything but live on a mission for the Gospel to be known. It would be so easy for Paul to fall into a mindset of thinking, “God, have you not seen how much I have done for you? And this is how you repay me?” However, I don’t see anywhere in the Scriptures where Paul says anything related to, “I deserve better than this”, when he faces difficult situations.
Quite frankly, I can’t say that I would remain as calm as Paul did while getting latched onto by a snake as people were calling me a murderer. When the snake hangs from Paul’s hand, I see a man who does not respond by exploding or blaming, but a man who responds with a deep peace and trust. I see a man who deeply knows Jesus. Even as others make commentary about their perception of who Paul was, he did not jump to defending himself among the people. Paul’s response reminds me of something Jose said from the stage a few weeks ago. “We don’t rise to the occasion, we fall to the level of our training”.
When we face trials of many kinds, what if the goal wasn’t to put on the best front we could or look the toughest we can? What if the goal was just to go back to Jesus as quickly as possible. I don’t think Paul became the patient, yet bold man that he did by being on his best behavior or by trying to appear strong. Rather, I think Paul was able to respond to the snake bite the way he did because of the way he prioritized being with Jesus. Paul was made strong by bringing his weaknesses to Jesus.
When we face trials either today, tomorrow, or next week, I pray that our response would simply be to look to Jesus… just as Paul’s always was.