By Judith Cooley-
It’s that time of year, when I have my usual run-in with Poison Ivy. Whether it be due to my jaunts through the woods, minorly prepping land for hunting season or getting an early jump on chopping firewood for winter, I have ended the last three summers with a case of Poison Ivy. During an itching spell, I wondered, as I often do, if there was some level of spiritual application that I could take away from this bout of ivy.
For those fortunate enough to wonder what getting poison ivy is really like, picture this: you know what causes you to have a reaction(you know the plant and where it grows) yet something in you compels you to keep going into the areas that harbor the threat of reaction. Sometimes you take precautions like wearing long sleeves, pants, and gloves and wash carefully after being near it. (Sometimes you can pick up a case and cannot recall being near it, but typically you know.) Coping with poison ivy is miserable. It’s itchy and painful, oozy and sometimes bloody and scarring. There is a constant nagging awareness in every affected area. Some reactions are severe, and other people can see you either itching or covering the areas with creams or gels. So, although the reaction is felt keenly by the sufferer others witness your struggle until you reach full recovery.
Perhaps we can liken spiritual temptations to Poison Ivy- spiritual Poison Ivy as it were. My body reacts to chemicals in the Poison Ivy plant ( the oily resin, urushiol ) while not every else has the same reaction. The same is true for spiritual reactions. There are different areas where we struggle. These areas could be pride, anger, jealousy, gossip, worry, lust, and the list goes on. We know the areas that we “react” to. Those spiritual areas that nag us and cause us severe discomfort if we come in contact with them.
The physical reaction to Poison Ivy can be easily identifiable. While the reaction to spiritual Poison Ivy can be harder to detect, the reaction is still noticeable if others are paying close attention. People might not know the whole story of how we brushed up against the Ivy plant, and perhaps they don’t know exactly where we are struggling spiritually either, they just see a struggle taking place, like they can see the physical discomfort felt by any ivy sufferer.
To eliminate the spiritual reaction of temptation, we need to take some precautions. We must stay tuned in with the Holy Spirit by listening to His leading. We have to pray. We must read our Bibles. We should meet together to learn and worship. We ought serve. We have should be thankful in all things. We must have faith. We need to proclaim His Lordship and deliverance in all circumstances. We have to employ the authority given to us though Christ. We must have hope, and we must love Him entirely.
When we do come down with a case of spiritual Poison Ivy, God has the healing balm. His blessed forgiveness and acceptance is the soothing cream our broken spirits need when we tumble from closeness with Him. He grants contrition and contriteness to enter our tender hearts to foster humility within us and allow us to enter back into an intimate walk with Him. The ultimate cure for temptation is the pure and holy Savior who bore all our sin and shame so that we would never have to walk in guilt or shame but rather walk in the righteousness of Christ Himself. How thankful are we that we don’t have to suffer spiritually because our God in heaven already granted us the cure in our risen Savior back on that hill in Calvary.
“By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them- yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.” 1 Corinthians 15:10
