A conservationist was out in the jungle with
her team, tracking the path of an endangered specie of scorpion. She managed to
find a beautiful specimen just before it crawled it's way hurriedly into a
passing river and consequently began to drown right before the nature team.
Instinctively she jumped into the river and reached out to grab the creature
before it drowned, but the scorpion stung her. Undeterred, though hurt, she
reached in again only to be met by the stinging tail of the
critter.
This
battle continued for a while, before one in her team asked, "Must you persist?
You're being attacked mercilessly!" She continued reaching in for the scorpion,
and continued being stung. He cried out again, "Please stop! This animal clearly
doesn't deserve to be rescued!"
She replied, difficultly through her
fighting, "He does only what he knows to do! He knows no better. I must do what
I know to be best for him despite his resistance!"
How often do we play the scorpion and resist
the love of friends or family or mentors or someone around us that cares? How
often do we resist God when all He is trying to do is try bring about the best
for us, after all He does know better. But then, how often do we walk away from
people in need because they react in a way that is only indicative of all that
they know? We allow them to drown in a pool of their trouble because we don't
want to get into a difficult situation with them.
I was told this story by a man who runs the
rescue house for street kids in Sao Paulo, and he related it to these poor
children who grow up with no discipline or concept of love. He warned me that
they will hurt the very people trying to help them, but only because it's all
they know. We need to remember our role, and stubbornly insist on carrying them
to a brighter future of hope.