The Snake

“What is the Lord teaching you this summer?” Last summer when I was asked this question a million times while working at kamp I had a different answer every time. I truly felt like the Lord was teaching me something new every time I walked into that Kwest kitchen, but this summer was different. There was one thing I kept coming back to. The snake. Let me back track a little so I sound less crazy. This June I went to Super Summer with my church as a team leader. The speaker that week was Zack Randles and on the fourth night he preached a message on pain. He read the story of Paul being bitten by a snake in Acts 28, a story I honestly don’t ever remember hearing before. But as he spoke, something in me shifted. From that night on, God kept bringing me back to that story over and over again this summer. 

Verses 1-10 read “Once safely on shore, we found out that the island was called Malta. The islanders showed us unusual kindness. They built a fire and welcomed us all because it was raining and cold. Paul gathered a pile of brushwood and, as he put it on the fire, a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand. When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to each other, “This man must be a murderer; for though he escaped from the sea, the goddess Justice has not allowed him to live.” But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects. The people expected him to swell up or suddenly fall dead; but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god. There was an estate nearby that belonged to Publius, the chief official of the island. He welcomed us to his home and showed us generous hospitality for three days. His father was sick in bed, suffering from fever and dysentery. Paul went in to see him and, after prayer, placed his hands on him and healed him. When this had happened, the rest of the sick on the island came and were cured. They honored us in many ways; and when we were ready to sail, they furnished us with the supplies we needed.” 

In Acts 28, Paul is bitten by a venomous snake. The people around him expect him to die but he shakes it off, unharmed. What’s even more powerful is what happens next, Paul uses that very same snake-bitten hand to lay it on a sick man and heal him in Jesus’ name. There’s so much we can learn from this passage but what sticks out to me the most is how Paul's snake bit hands turned into blessing after blessing. In his sermon Zack said “the presence of God does not mean the absence of pain.” And he's totally right, sometimes what starts as heartache, pain, and difficulty turns into a beautiful testimony of the Lord's goodness and faithfulness. Sometimes God wrecks our plans because He knows they’ll wreck us. Sometimes He breaks our hearts, not to hurt us, but to save our souls. Those “snakes” in our lives (seasons of loss, betrayal, disappointment, or failure) have left their marks, yes but they have also stretched, refined, and grown us in ways we could've never even imagined in the moment. They've made us more like Jesus. They have given us opportunities to turn around and heal others with our snake bitten hands in Jesus name. God doesn't allow pointless struggles for His children, He doesn't waste a hurt. He knows exactly who He wants you to be and He knows what it takes to get you there. 

Easy right? Just go through the struggle and come out more like Jesus? I went through that hard thing so I am tough and resilient and able to do things on my own? Wrong. The truth is we only become more like Jesus when we invite Jesus into the struggle. We must learn to suffer well. Transformation doesn’t happen just because we go through hard things, it happens when we walk through them with Him. If we try to survive the storm in our own strength, we’ll only end up more exhausted, more broken, and more lost. Self-reliance may seem like strength, but it leads to more pain and deeper struggle. It’s only when we surrender, when we bring our wounds, our confusion, and our weakness to the feet of Jesus that healing begins. His presence doesn’t promise the absence of pain, but it does promise peace in the middle of it, purpose beyond it, and power to endure it.

People always tell me, “You’re so tough.” Especially after I lost my dad, those words came more often than ever. And for a while, I believed them. I wore that toughness like armor, like something to be proud of. But the truth? I tried to do it alone for years, and all it left me with was bitterness. I was angry, hardened, and exhausted from carrying pain I was never meant to carry by myself. It wasn’t strength holding me together, it was pride. It wasn’t resilience, it was a refusal to surrender. The only thing truly “tough” in me was how hardheaded and prideful I had become.

I’ll never forget that night Zack said that sometimes you have to thank God for the snake in your life. That moment brought me to my knees. I cried like I hadn’t cried in years because that night, I thanked God for the passing of my dad and for the silly little heartbreak that made me who I am today. I didn't thank Him because I don’t miss my dad, not because I wouldn’t give anything to have him here but because if it weren’t for that pain, I wouldn’t have found Jesus. It was in that heartbreak that I finally surrendered. And in that surrender, I met the Savior who had been waiting for me all along. I’m thankful my dad is in heaven. And I know that he would be overjoyed knowing that I now walk with the Creator he gets to sit beside. That loss and heartbreak broke me, but it also opened the door to the greatest healing I’ve ever known. And now, with these same snake-bitten hands, I get to point others to the hope I found in Jesus.

One person in the Bible who understood suffering well was Paul. He endured intense physical, emotional, and spiritual trials. He was beaten, imprisoned, shipwrecked, abandoned, and threatened throughout his life. From the outside, Paul's story could easily be mistaken for a tragedy. And yet, he lived a life fully surrendered to the will of God. He didn’t let the pain rob his purpose. Through all of the suffering, Paul embraced all that God called him to do. In the midst of these extreme trails Paul did not wish for death, he wished for eternal life. He didn't miss the point here. He is either alive here on earth or alive in Heaven with Christ because to those who have put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ there is no such thing as death.
In July, I walked through the books of 1 and 2 Corinthians. And if I’m being honest, one theme kept slapping me in the face over and over again, God’s power is made perfect in human weakness. Paul’s life is living proof of that. In 2 Corinthians 11:30, he writes, “If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.” And then again, in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, he says,“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” Paul didn’t hide his brokenness. He didn’t mask the pain. Instead, he leaned into it, not because he loved suffering, but because he knew it was there, in the weak and raw places, that the power of Christ showed up the strongest. His life is proof that we don’t have to be strong to be used by God, we just have to be His. Then you get to 2 Corinthians 6:4-10, where Paul lays it all out.“Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God... sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.” That passage stops me in my tracks every time. Paul was crushed, rejected, mocked, starved, exhausted and yet full of joy, full of purpose, full of power. How? Because the nearness of God gives us strength to endure trials we were never meant to face alone. Paul’s life was by no means a highlight reel, it was a testimony. And it’s a reminder to all of us, if we’re walking through weakness, we’re not disqualified. We’re actually right where God does some of His most powerful work. 

And maybe that’s where you are right now feeling weak, broken, overlooked, or just plain tired. Maybe you’ve been trying to hold it all together, to be “tough,” to muscle your way through the pain and struggle. I’ve been there. I smiled and nodded, but inside, I was falling apart. I tried to survive it alone. I thought strength meant not needing help. But what I found was that self-reliance led me to bitterness, not healing. It led me to losing things I never thought I'd lose. We are not called to be “strong” by the world’s standards, we are called to be dependent on Jesus. It wasn’t until years later that I finally laid it all down, my grief, my pride, my questions, my anger, that I encountered the real strength of God. To be honest with you that night I finally surrendered, I wasn’t thanking God for all the hurt. I still had so many questions, questions I didn’t have answers for. But I brought them to the foot of the cross anyway. I didn’t need to have it all figured out, I just needed to lay it all down at the feet of Jesus.  It wasn’t until this past July that I finally thanked God for the hurt that led me to Him, for the grief that came with losing my dad, from heartache that came from losing the one person who meant the world to me. That kind of thankfulness doesn’t come overnight. It’s been a little over two years since I fully surrendered my life to Jesus. And it’s taken me four years to really see what God has been doing all along. We may not understand the pain while we’re walking through it, heck, we may never understand on this side of heaven. But we can stand firm in one unshakable truth, we serve a good and sovereign God. A God who doesn’t waste our pain. A God who walks with us through the valley. A God who brings healing from heartbreak, and purpose from loss. So if you’re tired of trying to be tough… stop. You don’t have to be. You don’t have to carry this alone. Jesus isn’t waiting for the cleaned-up version of you. He wants the honest, raw, hurting version. The one that’s questioning, doubting, grieving. Bring Him your snake-bitten hands. Let Him show you what His power looks like in your weakness. Because the truth is, the very thing that tried to break you might just be the very thing God uses to bring others to healing, through you. Just like Paul. Just like me. Just like you. Thank you Jesus for the snake. To God be the glory, always. Be the sunshine on someone’s cloudy day.

Good talk,
Rylie with the Messy Life :)