Naked and Afraid

Ok.  I admit it.  I like to watch Naked and Afraid.  If you haven’t seen it, what you have missed is a reality TV show where they dump people out in a jungle somewhere with no clothes, no food, no water, and only two or three survival items.  Last night was the climax of the Naked and Afraid XL version, where they dumped 10 survival experts out for 40 days.  It was a crushing ordeal.  Eight of the 10 “survived” and made it to the extraction point.

Over the course of the regular season and the XL season, it has been interesting to watch how people cope. Many start out with a sense of self-confidence, trusting in their own knowledge and training to get them through triumphantly.  Some start out working hard, trying to get water, catch food, and build elaborate shelters.  Others just try to do the bare minimum, conserving energy, hoping to have enough life left in them in the end to make the long final journey to the extraction point.  Regardless of how they start out, the ones who manage to finish, in nearly every instance, just barely scrape by, starving themselves and living a miserable existence until they can just manage to struggle with their last bit of strength to the extraction point.  They survive the ordeal, but only because it didn’t last too long.  At least that seems to be the case for almost all of them.  There was this one guy . . .

There was one guy they dropped off in the Florida Everglades.  He found some dry land because he took a risk and waded waist deep through a bunch of snake and alligator infested swamp.  He spent the time and energy to build a good shelter.  He killed a snake or two to eat, survived rain and storms, mosquitoes and other nasty bugs.  He was determined to thrive, not just survive.  At first, the alligators intimidated him.  Then he got hungry.  But instead of whining about it while laying around and trying to hang on to what energy reserves he had, he built a noose on a long stick, jumped in the black swampy water, and lassoed an alligator.  After stabbing it with his knife, he hauled the heavy thing back to his camp, built a smoker, and smoked enough alligator meat to keep him eating all he wanted for days.  This guy didn’t just survive, he made it through to extraction day victorious and thriving.  

After last night’s episode, I was thinking about how so many just barely survive, and how this one guy was such an exception.  I couldn’t help but consider how it related to life. I think we are all “naked and afraid” at times.  As Christians, we live here on Earth with the promise of an “extraction day” ahead.  Unfortunately, way too many Christians just try to hold on and survive until extraction day comes.  I don’t want to be that kind of Christian.  I want to be the kind that jumps in the swamp with a noose and wrestles the alligators.  I want to thrive until the great and glorious Extraction Day when we feast at the banquet table of our Lord.  And as we sit around the table telling stories, many may describe how by God’s grace they were able to hold on long enough to make it home.  No doubt that’s a victory.  But what if you could be the guy who’s telling the story of what it felt like to wrestle an alligator?  I want to be that guy.