‘Pray to the Lord to take the serpents from us.’ (Numbers 21:7)
“Sister,” blurted frustrated 10-year-old Marion during language arts, “sometimes I get so mad life kinda chokes me.” Like young Marion and the Israelites, we all have personal desert moments when we complain and grumble against God. We ask, “Why me?” and allow the emotional serpents of resentment, anger, and worry to slip and slide into our lives. Succumbing to their constricting and asphyxiating grip, we feel smothered in life’s stranglehold.
Only in looking upon the cross of Christ will we catch our breath. With honest prayer under the gaze of our crucified savior, our complaining and grumbling can become surrender; our resentment, forgiveness; our anger, patience; and our worry, trust. Life will then let go of its tightening grasp, and we’ll watch our serpents slither away.
— Sr. Bridget Haase, OSU
Numbers 21:4-9
Psalm 102:2-3, 16-18, 19-21
John 8:21-30
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