2012 Snake odyssey

Don't let the following blog entry fool you, seeing a snake does make my heart race and yelping noises come out of my mouth, but....
I also go into action mode.

As my face book friends know last night, as I did the last walk of the day with our new puppy (an adorable Australian shepherd mix name Ginger) my eye caught something as soon as we stepped out the door.

On the brick path leading to our above ground pool.

A snake. It was probably a foot and a half long, brown with diamonds on it's back with a small head. It was dark and honestly I could not tell if it was poisonous.

I hustled the pup back into the house.

The snake seems to lounging on the walk, in no hurry to leave. This makes me rather unhappy.
Went back out and grabed a broken shovel handle that is propped up against our shed.
I was thinking to scare the snake off.

At this point,  it ain't scared.
I get pretty close and it is only slowly moving down the path.

That was the moment I decided it was going to die. I was tired. I still had to walk the dog. I still really did not know if it was poisonous. Done deal.

God must have been in it because the first whack seemed to be right on it's head. After several more wild mostly missing whacks it was obviously dead and bleeding on my walk way. I scooped it up with the stick and flung it into the woods, walked the dog and went to bed.

Honestly I was kind of proud to have handled it on my own and with out grievous injury to myself.

It made me think about the Spiritual gifts lesson from church last night.
I think God made me a serious focused snake killer.
I do really get this supernatural sense of focus when dangerous things happen.
A car pulls out in front of me- I am just going to swerve around it with out blinking. I will be nervous only later when I realize what happened.

Spiritually I am pretty much the same way.
I seem to recognize danger and deal with it swiftly.
No hesitation, no messing around, just do it.
Later on I will realize how much danger was really involved.

I am not really special in this aspect because, each one of us has a gift. Not all alike, but all important.

Why would God give us such gifts?
So we could all have something cool to blog about?
No.
If you read 1 Corinthians Chapter 12-14, which a just great to read any way, it pretty clear why we have them.
God gave giftings to build up His church (ie. all the folks who call him Lord and mean it).

The encourager for time of stress.
The teacher for times of questioning.
The prophet for times where clarity is needed.
The wise for times where direction is needed.
The ones full of faith for times of doubt.
The servant heart for work God wills to be done.
The healer and miracle worker for when God wants to open blind eyes to His glory.
etc...

The pastor made a great point: We use the gifts we see in others as anchors to get us past times of need or crisis.

The person working the gift is not the point, but how it effects the bonded unified body of Christ on Earth is.
Does it make us better witnesses?
Does it make us stronger in our faith?
Does it give a wounded soul the push to move forward?
etc...
If yes, then mission accomplished.

In the back yard me being a snake killer only really means something if it actually keeps my Children and dog safer.
Truth is that was probably just a rat snake, who dilly dallied a little too long in my yard but if and when it's a life or death type snake issue I will know I can act.
Weirdly a giant king snake cruised the same path this morning when I was gardening and I did not feel the same rush to kill it. I knew what it was and I let it pass on by.
Hey, I have the gift of snake discernment ;).