“I love you, O LORD, my strength. The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” (Psalms 18:1 NIV)

It’s written all of the book of Psalms. Hey, it’s written all over the Bible! God cares for me! He cares for you! He cares for each one of us!

One day, back in my teaching days, I clearly recall what can now be seen as a funny story; although I will admit it wasn’t funny at the time! At least not for my student…

I had a Grade 7 class of French Immersion students that year. It was often a point of interest to me that the majority of the students in French Immersion were usually girls, and that day, as I was standing in front of a room filled mostly with girls, I saw a spider slowly being its descent from the ceiling to the floor… Right over the head of one of the girls!

Now I knew good and well what would happen if that girl laid eyes on that spider, and feeling sorry for the ears of the poor spider, as well as my own and those of the rest of the class, and of course, feeling sorry for the girl herself who was sure to start screaming any moment, I decided to rise to the occasion. I reached over her head, grabbed the single strand of silk that the spider was slowly descending upon, and attempted to move it to a different part of the room. I was sure it would be the perfect “save” for that student. In fact, she likely wouldn’t even know that she had been in danger of having a spider land on her head!

This spider-moving method can be tricky, and I had learned in my many years of teaching that it could result in one of two outcomes: Either the spider would float away on the end of its silk to safer havens, or it would suddenly and quickly finish its descent before it could be moved. I was banking on the former outcome that day. Unfortunately, the spider went for the latter. In the blink of an eye, it let itself all the way down to land on…that student’s desk!

Did you ever wonder what the shortest unit of time is? I learned what it is that day. It is the length of time between when that spider landed on the girl’s desk and when she began screaming…

Here, however, is where things really turned the wrong way. Instead of realizing that I had actually been trying to save her from the spider, the girl thought I had brought the spider over to her desk just to bother her! To say she was mad would be a gross understatement, and it took several hours for her to calm down enough for me to be able to explain what had really happened. I was pretty sure she would never stop screaming long enough for me to explain, and I did the only thing I could possibly do: I followed the advice of Psalms 18.

“In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help.” (Ps. 18:6a NIV)

The verse goes on to say, “From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears.” (Ps. 18:6b NIV)

I’m really not sure how He could have possibly heard my tiny plea for help, what with all the screaming, but He did. My cry came before Him, into His ears, and in the end, the student stopped screaming, accepted my explanation and apology, and forgave me. In fact, she even got to the point where she could laugh about it. Her only comment after that was, “It was sooooo ugly!”

What predicament do you find yourself in today? What intended “good deed” went sour? Whatever it is, take refuge in the Lord. Cry out to Him for help. He will hear you, guaranteed! Even over the ear-splitting screams of a girl who just saw a spider land on her desk!

P.S. Would anyone like a spider?

In His love,
Rob Chaffart

(To access the entire “The Sling for God” devotional series, please click here.)