Let the Snakes Go
by David J. Stewart
I'd just like to share a few thoughts with you that
have helped me over the years. Do you remember the Oklahoma City bombing
in 1995? It was horrible. I was actually sitting fifteen miles away
in a training class for the Postal Service when the explosion took place.
We actually drove by and saw the damage, it was horrific. We saw a church
roof which had collapsed a mile a way. Hundreds of buildings had broken
windows and damage. Today, after all these years, there are still MANY
unanswered questions about what actually happened that day. I was there
and still remember the local news reports for the first few days "confirming"
that two undetonated explosive devices had been found "inside" the building.
It wasn't a truck bomb that blew that building up.
Howbeit, 168 people died in that tragic event. Tim McVeigh was tried and convicted for the crime. Years later, I had heard one morning on the news that Timothy McVeigh was to be executed that afternoon in Indiana. Families of the victims were being asked if McVeigh's execution was going to bring "closure" to their suffering and anger. Some people said yes, others no. But one particular woman who's son had been killed in the bombing said something amazing which stuck in my mind. She said, "I look at this whole matter like a snake bite. When you get bit by a snake, you can hunt it down to kill it, while it's poison is killing you at the same time. Or you can tend to your own wounds, let the snake go, and live." She had chosen to let the snake go, and McVeigh's death was a non-event to her. In her mind she had forgiven McVeigh long ago and had placed him into God's hands. You see friend, hating someone else is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. In reality, your killing yourself.
Life is too short to live with a burden of hatred. We must let the snakes in our life go. God will avenge us (Romans 12:19; 1st Thessalonians 4:6). This is justice. If you get a speeding ticket, you are going to receive a fine. This has nothing to do with forgiveness. Likewise, the people who hurt us in life will have to answer to God for their evil deeds. If someone who has wronged us seeks to make restitution, then we are to forgive them. If someone wrongs us and refuses to make restitution, then we must place them into God's hands.
I'll give you a couple personal examples: Our car was stolen. The thieves destroyed the car. They smashed out the windows, crashed the front of the car into something, and the body had extensive damage. The car was totaled. We didn't have full coverage insurance because the car was too old. Insurance just isn't insurance anymore. Those thieves cost us quite a bit of headaches and money. They sinned against God and my family. You know, I don't hate them at all. I pray for their salvation. I don't know who they are, but I know they're living for the devil. I forgive them, but I also know that they have to deal with God. Justice must be met. That's Gods law. I can ask God to forgive them for sinning against me, but they broke God's commandments as well. They sinned against God; therefore, they have to make things right with God as well.
Another example is a Baptist pastor and his wife, whom I and my wife had completely trusted to take care of our children's pets for 7 months, while we were moving and relocating. They stabbed us in the back. My wife and kids cried for months. I had originally asked the pastor if he might know someone who could watch our pets while we were moving. To our surprise, he said he and his wife would watch our animals for 7-months. The initial agreement for was $1,000, plus pet-care costs. I, my wife, and our children--sat there in that pastor's living room with his wife, as he looked at us and said, "You know, we were going to watch your pets for nothing anyway, it's not about the money." I and my wife had just spent $4,800 on a nice used Dodge Ram van, with A/C, tinted windows, no body damage, clean vinyl interior, a new alarm system, remote starter, a new Pioneer stereo CD player, new speakers ... the works. We decided to give our van to that pastor as payment for watching out pets. I paid $500 for a new water-pump the week before delivering the van to him. The van ran top-notch when I gave it to him. I gave him the receipts for everything, and the signed title.
When we left Chicago, we owed all that money on our credit card. In addition, we even gave the pastor and his wife several hundred dollars worth of personal tools and household items, as payment for watching our pets. We had bought them cherry pie and ice cream, Uno's pizza from downtown Chicago, we spoiled them. We even gave them our deep dish pizza pan because they didn't have one. Do you know that malicious pastor and his wife broke their promise, and gave our pets away. Talk about Ananias and Sapphira. He and his wife knifed us right in the back, kept our van, and committed a crime against my family. Do you know why? Do you know what was my great wrong, that caused that pastor to hurt my family? It was because I wrote him a letter, instead of responding to his e-mail. I didn't want to maintain e-mail contact with him, so instead, we sent them a nice gift package, with pictures, a friendly letter, and several other gift items. He was so perturbed that I wouldn't respond to his e-mail, that he went ballistic and lost his mind. He gave my wife's expensive Shiatsu to a complete stranger on the street.
To add insult to injury, the pastor had promised to destroy the license plates after I left Chicago. Well, I made the mistake of trusting him. I received over $200 in parking tickets that the pastor refused to pay. Since they were my license plates, I had to pay the fines, and I did. I'm an honest man, unlike the dishonest pastor. My wife and kids call him "the monster." That pastor and his wife are snakes, and I had to place them into God's hands for judgment--Romans 12:19 and 1st Thessalonians 4:6 are all I and my wife needed to let the matter go. The Bible teaches in Proverb 28:13, "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper..." I'm just glad that they hurt us, and not us them. Our consciences are clear; BUT, they have to answer to God for defrauding us out of thousands of dollars. They must make restitution, as the Bible teaches, or else God will not accept their ministry efforts (Matthew 5:24). They will not prosper until they pay us back all the money we lost, plus the cost of the pets. We do not hate them, not at all; but, there is injustice. We decided to place the matter into God's hands, and let the snakes go. God will make everything right one day, and many believers will lose rewards and be ashamed at the Judgment Seat of Christ.
So let the snakes go and live. I know that the last thing someone who's been hurt wants to hear about is forgiveness, but it's for your own sake. Forgive and live. Let it go, placing it into God's hands. And remember this...just because you forgive someone doesn't mean that they are off the hook with God. No one is going to get away with anything, God has promised to avenge. This is justice! Forgiveness is often a process, but God will see us through. Keep your heart fixed on the love of God and the fact that Jesus paid a debt He did not owe because we owed a debt we could not pay.
"And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." Ephesians 4:32
In Jesus' precious name,
David J. Stewart
