God of the Ants

Several years ago I was sitting in my backyard in a lawn chair planning future yard projects.  I got to watching the ants busily working to build an ant hill in the sandy soil of my lawn.  I thought “They don’t even know I’m here.  They don’t know that I am god over them and could destroy every one of them with a wave of my hand (holding chemicals, of course).  They are busily going about their lives completely ignoring me.  If I destroyed their anthill with my shoe they would just start re-building.”

Recently after watching the sobering evening news, watching the warnings for a horrible storm coming to an area that had just been hit by a previous storm I commented to my husband, “if I lived in that area I would repent!”  I said that because sometimes I think God is trying to get our attention!  He wants us to call on Him to save our wretched souls from destruction!  He could crush us all in a heart beat- destroy everything we’ve done with a wave of His hand and we ignore Him- almost completely.  We go about our lives with our own plans and dreams.  We seldom bother to consider Him.  When we do pray it is usually to TELL Him what we want Him to do for us!  We boss Him around like He is our servant and we get angry at Him when He doesn’t do things the way we want in the time frame that we expect!  How arrogant!

Today I thought about the ant analogy again.  What if I knocked over the ant hill- destroyed all of their work with my shoe- or even a shovel & rake and the ants got angry at me?  What if they decided to attack me by biting me?   Perhaps my intent is that I want them to move their anthill somewhere else.  I am being patient and kind.  I simply want them to acknowledge my authority and move.   Since I can see the bigger picture let’s suppose I didn’t want to use chemicals since I am a bird lover and didn’t want to upset the balance.  They only see the small picture of their lives and I’m knocking over their house.

Isn’t that what many people are trying to do after these hurricanes and tornadoes, volcano eruptions, floods?  They are shaking their fists at God- if they acknowledge His existence at all.  Maybe it’s just “Mother Nature”.  Either way they fail to bend the knee and acknowledge God and there is a huge, eternal price to pay for that.

Take it a step further and imagine the ants start biting me- over and over.  Ganging up- rebelling in mass.  How long would I be patient with that foolishness?  How many bites would I put up with before I said “enough” and got out the big chemicals and blew them all away? 

Sometimes I tremble at the arrogance of man. 

We have such a small view of God.  He is so much more powerful than we can imagine and when I watch the news I wonder how much longer He will be merciful?

Watch me!

Recently, I read something that made me think that a true Christian should live a life that is so guilt free- so zealous- so above criticism that if a young believer asked them, “What should a Christian lifestyle look like?”  they could respond with “Watch me.  Watch how I live.  Watch how I study God’s word.  Watch how I eat and exercise.  Watch how I manage my money and how I spend my free time.  Watch how I treat my spouse and children.  Watch me”.

What a clean conscience one would need if they lived a life open to that level of examination!  It isn’t that we wouldn’t fall flat on our face into sin at times but we would quickly get back up and seek God’s forgiveness. We wouldn’t wallow in the sin. 

I can be “all or nothing” in my thinking and recently I did some research and discovered that this is a “perfectionist” mindset.  If I can’t do it perfectly then I won’t do it at all or I have to start completely over.  For a dieter this might mean if I eat one cookie I may as well eat the whole bag since I “blew it” and will have to start over tomorrow.  It would be so much better to stop at one cookie but the “all or nothing” thinker seldom stops there.  We learn this kind of thinking in early childhood.

The Scriptures tell us to change our thinking. Romans 12:1-2  “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Philippians 4:8  “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”  God empowers us and we can choose how to think.
 

My husband’s cousin recently died and he was a God honoring man.  Many years ago when we were nearing the end of a visit with them he asked us “do you see any hypocrisy in my life?”    I was deeply impacted by that question.  Could I ask someone that and receive their response graciously? 

He was striving to live a life that honors God and he inspired me.