Once Bitten –
What started as a day of cleaning up the yard for guests who were coming turned into a near death adventure for a couple. A woman was weeding her flower bed when she spotted a snake. Frightened, she screamed, and her husband came running to see what was wrong. Spotting the snake he decapitated it with a shovel, “killing” it, saving his wife from harm. A few minutes later he returned to remove the snake body…
“But what they (the Sutcliffes) didn’t know is that snakes can still bite and inject venom for at least an hour, if not more, after being decapitated. So when Jeremy went to pick up the snake’s head about 10 minutes later, he never expected it to bite him in the hand…” (Read Full Story: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/06/07/a-texas-man-decapitated-a-rattlesnake-it-bit-him-anyway-and-he-nearly-died-his-wife-says/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.8359d1db2ddd)
This harrowing tale came from the Washington Post. I read it this morning and learned a dead snake isn’t exactly dead. The article goes on to say that a snake’s head can bite you up to an hour after it died or more! That’s incredible that something no longer alive can still be a danger.
Reflecting on the article I thought about how most people have hurts, habits, and hang-ups in their lives and how often these can rear their ugly heads and strike even after we thought we had dealt with them. I listened to a story today about a woman who is an alcoholic, rageaholic and can’t stay out of jail. She struggles to make it two weeks. She has a history of trauma and abuse and her emotions and body bear the scars.
The dead, the past, have ways of haunting the present. Always proceed with caution.
blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com
Keep What Works
Mar 21
Posted by thewannabesaint.com
Keep What Works –
This advertisement was in my Twitter feed this morning. When I was a pastor who had to prepare and deliver a message each Sunday I loved the times when after the service people would come up and ask a question, make a comment or even challenge something I said during the message. It meant they were listening! I would listen to them and then discuss whatever was on their mind. At the end of the conversation I would often tell them; “Don’t take what I say as the truth. Go search for yourself. Find out if the all or part of the message is for you and keep what works and leave the rest.” I understood that depending on where we were on our path greatly determined what our minds, emotions, and spirits could process and apply at any given moment. Most of us have had the experience of someone excitedly telling us about something they heard someone say, or read in a book, and how it changed their lives. While we are grateful for our friend’s epiphany we also think to ourselves; “I’ve told them this a thousand times and they never listened!” It’s because they weren’t ready. The good piece of advice, the important life lesson we told them wasn’t ready to be heard.
Wisdom teaches us that many truths surround us presently. However, we can only perceive a few, if any, because we are unaware, distracted. The best news is that these truths are timeless and sooner or later they’re ready to be received and applied. Sometimes we become frustrated because we seem to be learning the same things over and over. We need to learn to give ourselves a break and trust that one day the truth we’ve been searching for will be received and kept because it works.
blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com
Share w/ Someone...
Like this:
Posted in Life
1 Comment
Tags: #advertisement, #applied, #apply, #best, #blessings, #challenge, #changed, #comment, #conversation, #deliver, #depending, #determined, #discuss, #distracted, #during, #emotions, #epiphany, #excitedly, #experience, #few, #frustrated, #givenmoment, #good, #grateful, #greatly, #heard, #important, #keep, #keepwhatworks, #kept, #later, #learn, #learning, #leavetherest, #lesson, #life, #listened, #listening, #lives, #loved, #Message, #minds, #ourselves. #break, #path, #perceive, #piece, #prepare, #presently, #process, #question, #received, #search, #searching, #sooner, #spirits, #surround, #teaches, #thewannabesaint.com, #think, #thousandtimes, #timeless, #trust, #truth, #truths, #Twitter, #unaware, #understood, #wisdom, @BrianLoging, advice, Listen, Mind, News, Pastor, Works