Don't Forget there's a snake in the Garage!

I have made a new discovery about our new house in Charlotte. Yesterday Bama, our golden retriever, saw or smelled a critter outside on our side porch in the ivy. She ran and smelled, but to no avail. Then as I was calling her to the back yard, I noticed the critter. He or she was a snake. I am not crazy about snakes, but it didn't look like a snake that I should freak out about. Later on in the day I went to get into the car in the garage and noticed that two of Ken's fishing poles had fallen down so I bent down to pick them up and set them right up against the wall. They felt too heavy for two fishing poles, so I investigated. Wrapped around the bottom of both poles was the snake. He or she looked like the same snake that was in the ivy. Every time I have gone into the garage since then, there has been the snake wrapped around the fishing poles. Margaret and I decided to name him today. I wanted to name him Sauron, but Margaret wants to call him Worm Tongue. So, Worm Tongue it is. I wrote on the white board a message, "Don't forget there's a snake in the garage."

Our new "friend" in the garage has gotten me to think. We as Christians cannot "forget about the snake that is in the garage." Sometimes we as believers take the outward temptations very seriously, but we forget about the "snakes" that are in our own garage. The Bible tells us that our hearts are deceitfully wicked. We underestimate the sin that pervades our motives, our thoughts, and the unknown recesses of our hearts. The Word of God has to be our daily mirror of choice, asking the Holy Spirit to show us those parts of our hearts that we ignore or pass the buck all the time, and stay humble before God as He uses His Word in order to expose sin that we rationalize away. The Word has got to be a priority in our lives or we too will forget that there is a snake in the garage.