Lynn Jones: The Danger of Presuming Upon Your Spiritual Strength
By Lynn Jones
In 1959, the “Coasters” recorded a song with these classic lyrics: “Poison ivy, poison ivy,/ Well late at night when you’re sleeping/ Poison ivy comes a-creeping around.” I have been blessed in many ways in my life, and one of those blessings is that I have a natural immunity to poison ivy. I have been around it all my life and have never had any adverse reaction to it. My mom and dad were the same, so I assume that I inherited my immunity from them. My two brothers have always had a similar immunity, except for one period when my younger brother Rick broke out after coming into contact with poison ivy.
It was not until years later that I learned the whole story behind Rick’s reaction to poison ivy. It seems that he was off in the woods with a couple of his buddies. As boys do, they sat around trying to think of things to brag about, so Rick started bragging about his immunity to poison ivy. As he told of his almost superhuman immunity to poison ivy, he said that he could even take the leaves of poison ivy, squeeze the juice on his arm, and it would not bother him. This was too much for Rick’s buddies, and they issued a dare that no self-respecting boy can turn down. They double-dog dared him to do it. Faced with the prospect of losing face in turning down a double-dog dare, Rick had no choice but to squeeze the juice of poison ivy leaves on his arm.
A day or so later, he came down with one of the worst cases of breaking out from poison ivy that I’ve ever seen. It was such a disgrace to our entire family that we largely left him to suffer alone. Even Mom, who was generally very sympathetic, seemed irritated with him. Only gradually did he improve, and, after a couple of other bouts over the next few years, he gradually recovered his natural immunity.
If there is any lesson to be learned from Rick’s bout with poison ivy, it is that you must be careful not to be presumptuous about your immunity to danger. Paul wrote about the danger of temptation, “If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!” (1 Cor. 10:12).
A sailor was asked what the most dangerous kind of weather for the crew of a ship was. He said that the most dangerous time for a sailor was when the weather is clear and breezy. At that time, sailors have no sense of danger. They don’t hold on and can be thrown overboard most easily at such a time.
Don’t presume upon your spiritual strength. In the words of Paul, “If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall.”
Lynn Jones is a retired pastor who lives in Oxford. He does supply preaching for churches in his area and often serves as an interim pastor. Jones is also an author, has written two books and writes a weekly newspaper column. He may be contacted at: kljones45@yahoo.com.
