In moments of despair, depression, and disillusionment, we need to take a cue from our brother Paul and shake it off. Literally, Paul shook the snake off him and didn’t suffer any effects from what should have been a lethal bite.
Friend, I’m gonna tell on myself and keep it real here: I am horrible at shaking things off and choosing to believe the best. But I want to emphasize that shaking off disillusionment is key to getting back up when life knocks us down. And when we shake that trash off us, we need not suffer any ill effects from it either. Meaning, when you start spiraling into disillusionment, you have to first stop repeating the lie that you’ve been abandoned by God and shake it off. But we have to take things a step further and make sure the venom of catastrophizing isn’t lingering inside us.
Paul learned what we have to learn, too: when you make it through the storm and all hell breaks loose on the shore— when you’ve been through all and it still keeps coming— we’ve got to make like Paul and shake! it! off!
Pound your chest right now and say, “Get off me!”
Nah, you didn’t do it. You didn’t say it out loud. You said it in our head, and that doesn’t count. Say it out loud so you can hear yourself make the declaration. Say it again so you feel it in your soul. Say it a third time so the devil and his demons start shaking!
The Bible gives us no record of Paul screaming, running around, or freaking out. Why? I think it’s because he didn’t do any of that. Paul knew he wasn’t going to die on Malta. Paul didn’t make a scene because he knew Rome was waiting, and Rome was where Paul would proclaim the gospel of the risen Messiah before Caesar himself.
Well, friend, I’m with Paul. I’m not going to die on my Malta, because my Rome is waiting too. Paul told his crew in the middle of a storm, “This has to happen.” And I’m telling myself, “This has to happen” too.
If you’ve been on Malta trying to figure out why you’re there, I want to point you back to the who. Who is in control of your life? Who loves you? Who gave you the vision or dream for your life? If you answered “God” to any of those questions, stand firm in the faith that has brought you this far. It’s time to shake off the disillusionment.
This action isn’t just for you. It’s for everyone who is watching you too! See, when Paul got bit by the snake, no one came around him to help. Everyone stood there and watched to see what he would do or what would happen. Child of God, people are watching you. People are waiting for you to lose it, to walk away, or to curl up and die. But look at you! You are surviving and refusing to give up. I’m standing and giving God some praise because you’re still here and you are going to shake it off.
Pick yourself up and get ready because Rome is waiting.
Do we know what to do in Malta? If we find ourselves there, how should we live? Remember, dear friend, Paul didn’t want to go to Malta either. Visiting Malta was not at all in his plan. And yet . . .
You are living back at home with your parents and waiting tables when you thought you were on the fast track to a promising career after earning your MBA.
You are going through painful IVF treatments after years of infertility when you thought it would be easy to get pregnant.
You are moving out of the home you can no longer afford because you thought you would have been promoted by now.
You are devastated because you thought your engagement would lead to marriage, not a broken heart.
You’re on Malta, too.
Paul could’ve ended up bitten and bitter, but instead he made his time on Malta matter.
Word spread about the man who had survived both a storm and a snakebite, and Paul became quite popular on the island. He was invited to stay at the house of Publius, Malta’s chief official.
Paul was a bedraggled, foreign inmate who, before long, was invited to chill with the most prominent family on the entire island.
What if our adversity turns out to be the one thing that opens doors to which we otherwise would never have had access? Said differently, what if our adversity brings us opportunity? I think it would change our language. We would go from lamenting and asking why, why, why? to speaking, instead, with authority and clarity. Paul had to go through the storm, he had to survive a snakebite, because God was going to use him for something he never would have encountered otherwise. Sometimes opportunity is hidden behind adversity.
What storm are you surviving?
I’m here to tell you that you’re on Malta for a reason!
Paul wouldn’t have known what was in store for him on Malta, but what he did know was this: it had to happen. In the same way, everything we have gone through and everything we will go through has to happen. So until we make it to Rome, I want us to use our snakebitten hands to bring some healing to those around us. We may not know the why, but we’re believing in the who. We can’t quit in the storm because there is healing on the shore. It has to happen. It’s part of the plan. And we believe the pain will have a purpose.
Taken from “Grit Don’t Quit” by Bianca Juarez Olthoff. Copyright 2023 by Bianca Juarez Olthoff. Used with permission from Thomas Nelson.
Photo Credit: Japheth Mast/Unsplash
