Ok. \u00a0I admit it. \u00a0I like to watch Naked and Afraid. \u00a0If 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. \u00a0Last night was the climax of the Naked and Afraid XL version, where they dumped 10 survival experts out for 40 days. \u00a0It was a crushing ordeal. \u00a0Eight of the 10 “survived” and made it to the extraction point.<\/p>\n
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. \u00a0Some start out working hard, trying to get water, catch food, and build elaborate shelters. \u00a0Others 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. \u00a0Regardless 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. \u00a0They survive the ordeal, but only because it didn’t last too long. \u00a0At least that seems to be the case for almost all of them. \u00a0There was this one guy . . .<\/p>\n
There was one guy they dropped off in the Florida Everglades. \u00a0He found some dry land because he took a risk and waded waist deep through a bunch of snake and alligator infested swamp. \u00a0He spent the time and energy to build a good shelter. \u00a0He killed a snake or two to eat, survived rain and storms, mosquitoes and other nasty bugs. \u00a0He was determined to thrive, not just survive. \u00a0At first, the alligators intimidated him. \u00a0Then he got hungry. \u00a0But 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. \u00a0After 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. \u00a0This guy didn’t just survive, he made it through to extraction day victorious and thriving. \u00a0<\/p>\n
After last night’s episode, I was thinking about how so many just barely survive, and how this one guy was such an exception. \u00a0I couldn’t help but consider how it related to life. I think we are all “naked and afraid” at times. \u00a0As Christians, we live here on Earth with the promise of an “extraction day” ahead. \u00a0Unfortunately, way too many Christians just try to hold on and survive until extraction day comes. \u00a0I don’t want to be that kind of Christian. \u00a0I want to be the kind that jumps in the swamp with a noose and wrestles the alligators. \u00a0I want to thrive until the great and glorious Extraction Day when we feast at the banquet table of our Lord. \u00a0And 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. \u00a0No doubt that’s a victory. \u00a0But 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ok. \u00a0I admit it. \u00a0I like to watch Naked and Afraid. \u00a0If 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. \u00a0Last night was the climax of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-misc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2419"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2420,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2419\/revisions\/2420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}