Slaying Those Dragons

The story is told of an English “gentleman of the road” (we would call him a "hobo") who stopped by a restaurant named the “Saint George and the Dragon.” Because he was hungry, he knocked at the back door and asked if he might have a bite of some leftovers to eat.

A very stern lady looked the fellow in the eye and said, “I’ll not give you one crumb — you’re a fit fellow — get yourself a job, you bum!” And then to punctuate her point, she slammed the door in the Englishman’s face. The shabbily dressed Englishman stood looking at the establishment’s sign for a moment and then knocked again. The door opened and the same stern lady asked in a hateful voice, “Well, what is it you want now?”

“I was just wondering,” he said, “could I please talk to Saint George this time?”

Unfortunately, we all must face a few “dragons” in our life. Sometimes we work with them — sometimes they are relatives — and then sometimes we are the dragons!

What makes the dragon appear in us? Is it petty problems, real or imagined slights, jealousy, insults, someone cheating us — someone rubbing us the wrong way? Do we truly like ourselves when the dragon appears? More than likely, we do not.

There’s a biblical formula for slaying those dragons — it goes something like this:

“Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another” (Romans 12:10).

Dear reader, when this formula is employed, those dragons will disappear every time!

—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets