Susceptible

The story goes that the serpent was the craftiest creature in the garden.

Lots of questions can crop up about that. How are serpents crafty? If it’s that way inclined, how did it get into garden? Why is Eve entertaining a conversation with this crafty creature?

Lots of questions, but that’s not really the point. The point is that the serpent approached the woman and was able to get her to take the forbidden fruit. The woman gave some to the man and he ate. Later when they were caught the man blamed the woman and the woman blamed the serpent. The serpent got what was coming his way. The woman got what was coming her way. The man got what was coming his way as well.

In that story, something I never appreciated until recently was just how susceptible the two prime figures in this story was. The woman susceptible to the persuasive sales pitch. The man susceptible to the voice of his wife as well as the voice within that told him it was fine to disobey clear instructions.

In our current story, I wonder if we are aware of how susceptible we are. Susceptible to lies from without and rebellion from within? The encouragement to turn to the truth was met with hostility and resistance all because of the lies people preferred to live in. Despite blatant evidence of truth around us and within us, we can still prefer listening to another voice. They’re often referred to as weak points and it is often a fall-back for when we get caught.

Surely it would be better to acknowledge that we are susceptible and look for ways to get protected in the light of that truth. There have been a number of issues that I’ve grappled with over the years. One thing that was always a recipe for disaster where those issues were concerned was living in a state of being as though those issues were beneath me and I could never be affected again. That mix of arrogance and complacency left me in the prime position for suggestions to set root in my heart and having grown they produced massive fruits of failure.

One of the lessons of that story at the beginning was never thinking we could pass on responsibility for our actions. What we do – in obedience or disobedience – is on us. We do ourselves the biggest favour by acknowledging how susceptible we can be and only looking to be open to the help that can be provided to protect us.

Experience shows that can save a lot of heartache and pain.

(Photo by Mohamed Nohassi on Unsplash)

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

C. L. J. Dryden