Sting of the Scorpion


I have watched with sadness, as have you, over events of the past several weeks. As theatre goers attended the opening night of the movie "Dark Knight Rises" in Denver Colorado, a gunman dressed in costume open fired with several weapons killing 12 and injuring 58. Just a few days before, in Toronto where I live, two men attending a street party got in a gun fight that left 2 innocent bystanders dead including a 14 year old and a 23 year old man as well as 23 injured.  The week saw shootings several nights in a row. 

Whenever such events occur, our city fathers and other political leaders, experts, psychologist, and criminologist wax eloquent about the causes of such events and how we need to enact more gun control and pour more money into community resources or policing or both. I get the distinct sense that they want to appear to be doing something but don’t really know what to do. Throwing money at it seems to be their only solution.

Another trend I’ve been watching is the so called "war on drugs." If you watch the news you are aware for instances that millions of North Americans¹ are drug users and drug trafficking is a multi-billion dollar business involving gangs and organized crime. Approximately 1.5 Americans alone are arrested each year on drug offenses and 500,000 are imprisoned.  

Drug use accounts for 1/3 of the new HIV infections. At a recent HIV conference in Washington which gathered 23,000 participants including scientist, doctors and others in the fight against aids, it was suggested that the war on drugs actually contributes to the spread of Aids and some were calling for the end of the war on drugs.² In addition, it is estimated that 40,000 Mexicans have died in the war on drugs in that country, mostly as the result of organized drug cartels.

As I have thought about all this and have watched our leaders scurry for answers over many years and many instances, I have become increasingly convinced that our leaders do not have the answer and if they did have the answer it would not be politically correct to say and so it mostly goes unsaid. So, they have to be appear to be doing something. They pass laws, they pour money into poor communities, they develop better social programs and they beef up police presence. All of this may have its place, but no one, in our humanistic culture, wants to state the real problem and therefore will not come to the correct conclusion.

The real problem is much deeper and will not be resolved by more laws or social programs or by throwing more money at it. The real problem is as old as humanity itself and unless it is addressed correctly, all the efforts of our leaders go for naught. And unfortunately, the solution can not be legislated and in fact is anathema in our present culture. Let me tell you a story to illustrate the problem.

The scorpion wanted to cross to the other side of the pond. He couldn’t figure out a way to get there until he saw a frog sitting on the bank of the pond. Going over to the frog he said, "Please, I need to get across the pond, but I can’t swim. Can I get on your back and have you hop me across the pond?"

"Well," said the frog, "as a matter of fact I was just about to hop to the other side. I’d be glad to give you a ride on my back if you promise not to sting me when we reach the other side."

"Oh," exclaimed the scorpion, "I promise not to sting you. I just want a ride across the pond."

So the frog said, "Hop on." Then he hopped across the pond with the scorpion on his back. But just as soon as they landed on the other side, the scorpion stung the frog. As the poisonous venom took its effect, and the frog lay dying on the shore, he looked at the scorpion in disbelief and asked, "How could you do this to me? I gave you a ride across the pond just as you asked and you promise that you would not sting me. Now look what you’ve done. Why did you betray my trust?

Instantly the scorpion shrugged and replied, "It’s my nature to sting."

The real problem in the "war on drugs" for instance is that people want the drugs. The reason they want the drugs is a result of the moral decay of our culture. The result of our secularization and pursuit of humanism has left people have no hope, no moral compass, no foundation for living. The further our culture runs from God and seeks its "self actualization" and "fulfilment", the less self actualized and fulfilled it becomes.

Fundamentally, human nature itself is sinful. Just as it is the nature of the scorpion to sting, so it is the nature of humans to sin and without God and with the lessening of godly influence in our culture we are on a collision course with moral decay and ultimate disaster.   We will always act on our basic nature.  

I doubt very much that our politicians and secular leaders are going to call for a return to God.   In a secular pluralistic society such a call would be anathema³.   So, though they do not really know what to do, they will make noise, they will pass laws, they will seek to appear to be doing something but they do not have the solution.

So, what are you and I to do. I believe that the church of Jesus Christ is the only hope of the world.   We actually have the Gospel message that God uses to change the human heart and transform lives and to transform our very nature.    No, the world was never perfect and never will be.    Basic human nature has not and will not change.    The scorpion stings because that’s what scorpions do.    Sin will always be with us.   However, God is in the business of transforming our nature and changing lives through faith in His Son and by the power of the Holy Spirit residing in us.    As good as social programs may be, communities change as individual hearts change and God changes hearts.

At the risk of being called "simplistic" and preaching "pie in the sky", let me suggest that what the world needs right now is not more politicians seeking to appear like they are doing something, but rather the church of God upon her knees crying out for a revival that will transform one person at a time.    The problem is in the scorpions sting and Jesus Christ is the only one, the only one, who can change our very nature.    Pray for Revival Church.  Pray for Revival.

1.   And countless others around the world

2. Infection with the HIV virus is often spread through the sharing of needles

3. Anathema - something that one extremely dislikeS