My image was at risk as I ran through the cold, dark, night—purse on my right shoulder—a personal delivery for my neighbor in my left hand. I dreaded the wooded lot separating our houses, especially at night. Recently having found a copperhead snake in our driveway only escalated my fear. Suddenly, I heard a noise rustling in the leaves behind me. Fear wrapped her long legs around my waist and would not let go! Inhibition left me, caring not who saw me or how ridiculous I might have looked. I ran like a maniac! Leaping, feet high in the air—the Tennessee Stepping Horses had nothing on me—toes pointed, knees pumping higher in the air with each fearful step, screams synchronized with each leg change—all done in perfect rhythm. Fear-filled imaginations carried me off to ridiculous places. My thoughts running together: “It must be enormous…only a huge snake could make a noise this loud…it is seriously chasing me. It goes faster and faster as I pick up speed…I am sure it is an anaconda!”
By the time I reached my neighbors doorstep I was huffing and puffing – as only an out of shape fifty-year-old woman can do after sprinting through an ocean of dead leaves in the dark of night. Pride fully I thanked God it was night, cringing at the thought of the neighbors peaking out their windows. How humiliating! My pitiful bit of image remaining after this charade would be marred for sure!
As I reached the top of the porch, a strange sound startled me. “Clunk-clunk…” I swallowed hard, taking a deep breath, while peering back over my shoulder. My eyes dropped slowly downward following the hanging cord spilling from the backside of my purse—leading all the way down to the porch step. A small black box attached to its end had come to rest after slithering through the black of the night behind me. Disbelief left me speechless! My oversized anaconda was not what it had appeared to be after all! It was in fact, my cell phone charger cord!
What’s your anaconda friend?
Are you running scared from something that threatens to mar your image? Have you allowed your grim financial situation to keep you on the run while the snake in the leaves has grown bigger and bigger in your mind? Are you exhausted? I want to encourage you today: This anaconda is not too big for Christ! Are you running scared because each time you look in the mirror the enemy tells you that you will never be young or beautiful again. With your self-image based on something that does not exist like airbrushed images and computerized perfection the voice of your enemy meets you every morning in the mirror filling your mind with lies, tearing away at your self-image. I want to encourage you today: This anaconda is not too big for Christ!
2 Corinthians 4:16 “We do not lose heart, though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.” NIV
Perhaps you have been running scared—realizing you are powerless to restore your broken marriage. Your self-image has been defined by your husband’s responses to you. Perhaps your imaginary anaconda says: ‘If you were sexier, your husband wouldn’t have left you for the younger woman?’Are you running scared —feverishly trying to look more attractive?
My friend, I want to encourage you today: This anaconda is not too big for God! Christ has the power to fill you with confidence and as you acknowledge Him your self-worth will be defined by what He has to say about you. He says you are beautiful in His sight and you are enough! Psalm 91:14 “because she loves me, says the Lord, I will rescue her; I will protect her, for she acknowledges my name.” NIV
Perhaps you are running scared because your child refuses to make wise choices. You have tried with all your might to set his or her life back on the right course. Perhaps your self-image is the worst it has ever been and you feel like a failure as a Mom? I want to encourage you today: This anaconda is not too big for God!
2 Timothy 1:12 “I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him for that day.” NIV
You can trust God. Never did I imagine when I put my phone cord in my purse that morning that by evening it would have transformed into a man eating anaconda. A bad self-image keeps us running in fear — creating imaginary anacondas that do not really exist. We feel alone in the pitch dark night as our enemy slithers behind us. In reality, we are never alone. The one who created us is with us every step we take. He loves us with so great a love that He would lay down his life. I challenge you to look for your self-worth in the one who created you and called you worthy. He loved you enough to send his one and only son Jesus; to bear all of our sin and shame. And the best part is we do not have to wait until we have it all together to come to Him.
Romans 5:8 “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners Christ died for us.” NIV
Once we accept Christ as the way, the truth, and the life, the same anacondas that once tried so hard to keep us fearfully running, lose their power in His presence. No longer will our self image be based on imaginations or fearful thinking but on the truth of God’s word.
So what’s your anaconda? Run! Run faster my friend toward the image of Christ today. Knees up! Toes Pointed! I can almost hear Him say: My daughter, THIS ANACONDA IS NOT TOO BIG FOR ME!
You don’t have to do this alone!