“You Knew I Was A Snake…”

Many of us have heard this story:

A man started to climb a high, steep mountain when a snake asked the man to carry him along. "But you're a snake," the man said. The snake smiled. "Don't worry. I won't bite you." After days of arduous climbing, the man reached the mountain summit, whereupon the poisonous snake bit him. As he lay dying, the man cried out, "You said you wouldn't bite me!" His reptilian hitchhiker looked at him and said, "Ha! You knew I was a snake when you picked me up." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV2AYZ6Y3ds

The Farmer and the Viper is one of Aesop's Fables. It has the moral that kindness to the evil will be met by betrayal. The singer Al Wilson introduced a variant telling of the fable in his song "The Snake" (1968).

There it is a 'tender woman' who finds a dying, half-frozen snake on the side of the road and takes it home to revive it. The snake later bites her, then says as she is dying in disbelief, "Silly woman, you knew I was a snake before you brought me in!"

[11] This version is repeated in the film Natural Born Killers (1994). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Farmer_and_the_Viper

Modern day applications of this include:

• If you fall in love with a man who is cheating on his wife to be with you, while he did the same thing to his 3 previous wives…
• George Zimmerman, who was acquitted for murdering Travon Martin, can be used as an example of consistency of character. He had a past record of domestic abuse, narcissism and law breaches. He has had three arrests since his acquittal in 2013. http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/10/us/george-zimmerman-arrested/
• On her TV show, “Fix My Life,” Iyanla Vanzant interviewed a man that had fathered 34 children, yet had not committed to any of them. Shouldn’t any woman who becomes involved with him consider this? http://www.oprah.com/own-iyanla-fix-my-life/Why-a-Father-of-34-Children-Never-Considered-a-Vasectomy-Video

When you reflect on these things, this quote comes to mind:  “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” - Albert Einstein

The Bible says:

1 Corinthians 15:33-34 (NIV): 33 Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.” 34 Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God…

Matthew 10:16 (NKJV):  “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.”

Romans 12:21 (NKJV): Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Memorable Quotes:

“When people show you who they are, believe them the first time,” – Dr. Maya Angelou

“If you did what you always did, you will get what you have always gotten.”- Henry Ford

“God did not create evil. Just as darkness is the absence of light, evil is the absence of God.” ― Albert Einstein

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Einstein

“And this is the forbidden truth, the unspeakable taboo - that evil is not always repellent but frequently attractive; that it has the power to make of us not simply victims, as nature and accident do, but active accomplices.” ― Joyce Carol Oates

“To see evil and call it good, mocks God. Worse, it makes goodness meaningless. “ ― Stephen R. Lawhead, Arthur

“And I must believe that man has the power to know the right, to choose between good and evil and know that his choice has made a difference...” ― Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon

Moral of the story:  Evil is Evil. Good is Good. We can have less drama and more peace in our lives if we see, accept and understand  people and things as they are and not how we want them to be…