"The story has been told of a man who while hiking in a desert, stumbled upon a rattlesnake that had become hopelessly wedged between a boulder and some limbs from a fallen tree. The man decided to save the rattlesnake, but in the process the snake tried to bite him. The man tried to free the snake a second time. Again, the snake tried to bite the man. Finally, on the third attempt the man succeeded in freeing the snake. And still, the snake coiled and attempted to strike its liberator. The man’s companion, who had observed from a safe distance, asked the man why he continued to risk himself to free the snake. The man responded, “The snake was attempting to strike because that is its nature. My nature is to love. Should I cease to love because the snake attempts to strike?”
The metaphor is easy. The self-inspection is not so easy. What is my nature?
Sometimes it's the snake. Sad but true...and tempting to delete what i just wrote.
Sometimes it's 'the man', the rescuer as it were.
Why it does it switch? Can I control which nature shows up?
Paul answers this better than I can in the 8th chapter of Romans. Here's my paraphrase summary of a section of that chapter: If I give up control of my corrupt nature, which reeks of death and decay, to the Spirit of God, He lives in me and gives me a new attitude and life that is alive and at peace with God.
So I CAN control.... by giving up control. Counterintuitive but so like God. His 'foolishness' confounding my 'wisdom'. I wouldn't want it any other way :)
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