Radio preacher and best-selling author Chuck Swindoll once spoke to a group of pastors. He told about a man who was mountain climbing in the Sierra Mountains of California. In one particularly difficult section of his climb, he pulled himself on to a ledge only to find a six‑foot timber rattlesnake looking at him with his mouth open and tail rattling. The man froze. The rattler struck. The man moved so that the snake’s fangs barely missed grazing his neck. Still, the snake’s fangs got caught in the man’s pullover sweater. He could feel beside his neck the snake trying to get loose, so the man reached back to grab the rattler’s head.

Unfortunately, this caused him to lose his balance and fall back, rolling down an incline with the six‑foot rattler still attached to his sweater. His progres…