A few years ago, I moved into my first home. One Sunday afternoon, I worked on pruning a pear tree in the back yard. About 30 minutes after I started working on the tree, I noticed a little white spot on my hand. Over the next few hours, pain began in that hand, and worked its way up to my shoulder.
The muscles in my hand and arm were involuntarily contracting, and the pain was excruciating. I laid in bed all night, in so much pain that I just wanted to scream. Ibuprofen didn’t help, and I considered going to the ER. I didn’t have any insurance, and money was tight. So, I endured the pain.
In the morning, the pain was still nearly as intense. So, I decided to go into my family doctor, and see if they could work me in. I found out that I had been bitten by a black widow spider, while I was working on that tree. Thankfully, I wasn’t terribly allergic to the venom, or it could have killed me.
They gave me a steroid shot, and a prescription for some mild muscle relaxers. Within a few hours, I was feeling much better.
What lessons can be learned from a black widow bite?
That spider was so small, that I never felt the bite. It wasn’t till a few minutes later, that a small white circle appeared. Even that small wound looked harmless. But, the venom was working its way through my blood stream, and intense pain was not far behind.
That bite reminds me a lot of what the world would consider small sins in my life. How many times has the Holy Spirit prompted me about some seemingly minor sin, and I ignored that prompting? If I don’t deal with it, no matter how small it may seem, it allows that poison to begin working its way into my heart.
The poison from that little sin begins to work its way into my life, and if it isn’t dealt with, it brings intense pain.
Those seemingly little sins that we all ignore can poison our witness to the unbelievers around us, and cause great harm to the cause of Christ.
When the Spirit prompts you about a sin in your life, no matter how small it may appear, deal with it right then.
It will save you a lot of pain.
Great story, Mark. We had a preacher come to our church (he's 96 years old and still on the preaching circuit!) and he told a story about a spider. Your blog reminded me of it- he said that a lot of times we will go around cleaning cobwebs out of the corners of our lives. We keep cleaning up and dealing with the conflicts, mess and consequences of sin....instead of going after the spider that's making the cobweb and rooting it out of our lives- we just keep tearing down cobwebs. ;)
ReplyDeleteI hope that makes as much sense as it did when he told the story.
Have a great snowy weekend. Be well.