Kill The Snake Properly!
First of all, the title of this post does not imply harming animals, so kindly read on.
I once had a professor who gave complicated exams. When the time for exams was near, he always told us to be well prepared. He cautioned us that he was not going to be lenient in his grading so we had to study hard. The well prepared were guaranteed an ‘A’ grade while others wouldn’t be pleased with their grades. One of his sayings that I remember vividly till this day was, “Make sure you kill the snake properly. If you don’t, it would get up and bite you.” It was his way of saying that we were to ‘attack’ the exams with everything we had to get the best outcome. If we didn’t ‘attack’ it properly, then we would be surprised by the poor outcome of the exam.
When I watch some movies, I can identify with my professor’s saying. The evil villain is a pain in the neck and has killed so many people in the movie. After so much drama, the long awaited final confrontation between the lead actor and villain follows. They fight, scatter and break stuff for some minutes. For a moment, it appears that the villain is beating the lead actor to the point of killing him/her. All of a sudden, the lead actor gains the upper hand, reaches for a gun and shoots the villain…just once! At that point, I’m thinking “Seriously? Just one shot? After the evil he/she has done?” As the lead actor walks away, thinking he/she has won the battle, the villain gets up again, and reaches for a weapon nearby, to kill the lead actor. “How foolish? How could the lead actor leave a weapon lying around afterwards?” For some ‘divine’ reason, the lead actor knows he/she is about to be killed. Yeah right. With some superman moves, he/she reaches for his/her gun and empties the cartridge of bullets on the villain, completely killing the villain. I think to myself “Why didn’t he/she just do that before?”
I believe this principle can be applied to all areas of our lives. Kill the snake properly. Whatever you do, do it to the best of your abilities and do not leave any part undone. Do the work with all you’ve got. Don’t do it half-heartedly. Truth is, your work will always speak for you, and it is easy to assess the quality. The quality of what you put in is the quality of what you get. At that job task, give it your all, even if you’re underpaid. Love your spouse like it is the last thing you’ll ever do, even if you feel you don’t receive same. For that exam, burn the midnight oil and study hard, even if it seems so difficult. For that project, put in the best resources, even if you’re not appreciated. Don’t allow the snake to get up or leave weapons lying around. In other words, don’t give anyone or anything the opportunity to resurface and become a thorn in your flesh. Kindly note that anything you avoid or refuse to confront would not disappear. Instead, it simply means you have postponed it to the future, and it would still come back to hunt you. I advice you to come face to face with it now. If you play with your work now, you will pay dearly later. If you pay full attention now, you will play cheerfully later. Labour now for future gratification.
Giving your best effort shows indeed that you’re a reflection of God. Whatever God does, he does excellently well. In six days, he put in his best efforts to produce the best work, and the result was a beautiful world, with you and I in it. Therefore, you glorify God when your work is exemplary. In all you do, do it well to God’s glory. Jesus Christ succinctly sums it up in the verse below.
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Matthew 5:16.
I hope you enjoyed this post. Kindly enter your email address to follow 8minuteword.com and receive notifications of new posts by email.