I Hope Ants Don't Become Giants

Have you ever kicked over and ant pile? What is the cruelest thing you have ever done to an ant? When I was a kid we used to stick these awesome firecrackers called “M80s” into the ant hill and blow them up.

The M80s would litterally leave craters in the ground. Then ants would find themselves in the trees trying to figure out what in the world just happened. Then they would hurry down to get back to work. It always seemed so sad that they would get right back to working on rebuilding their home.

Doesn’t that seem ridiculous? Look at the life of an ant… they just do the same routine thing every day. A kid blows up their hill… and they rebuild it.

But think about our lives… what if someone was on the outside looking in? We live in boxes, then we get into moving boxes and go to bigger boxes, then we get back in our moving boxes and return to our smaller boxes… it seems so routine and sad doesn’t it?

I’ve always been told by older and more wise people that life will just keep getting busier and busier, and that I should cherish today, but I have the hardest time trying to wrap my head around a busier schedule until I reach another season of life… then I find myself envying the simple days that I should have cherished.

The other day I got into the best argument of my life. It was intense, back and forth, and consisted of numerous “one-ups.” Then when all was said and done, I stinkin lost!

I was walking by the playground and a bunch of kids saw me. They yelled my name from afar, and then came sprinting to the fence line. It really made me feel good inside that these kids were pumped to see me.

I took a couple of their noses, a girl took my nose and ate it, then they tried to get me involved in a game of tag… but everything took a turn when one of the kids made a derogatory comment… “Your nose is pork!” I didn’t even know what that meant, but judging by the other kids’ reaction I could tell it was an insult! I quickly responded by saying that his ear was pork, still not knowing what that meant.

This went back and forth as we named different body parts and said they were pork. By this time all the kids had left their areas of play and joined the crowd of bystanders. What started out as a group of kids excited to see me turned into a group of kids pulling against me in hopes that their peer would trump me in this intense game of pork insults.

I had to venture back to kindergarten to get in a proper mindset for this galactic battle. I remembered one time a kid told another kid that his head was so big that it would explode and it trumped all other insults. So I thought I would put an end to this argument once and for all… “Well, your head is pork!”

BOOM! It was done! All the kids hung their heads in shame knowing that they had been defeated as a whole.

Every kid hung their head in shame except for one… the kid dealing the insults. His head remained high and proud, gleaming with confidence. As the other kids began to slowly walk back to the play ground, he boldly proclaimed, “YOUR WHOLE BODY IS PORK!!!”

Ohhhs and Ahhhs resounded throughout the playground. Smiles stretched across the kids’ faces. Shouts of joy rang from the top of the swing set. I think some kids even leaped and through their fists in the air.

I knew it was over… the warm feeling of victory quickly escaped me as I was certain that the argument was over, and I was not victorious… defeated by a kid. And the worst part is that I still have no clue what the meaning of pork is, and why calling someone that carries so much weight.

Here’s the thing… I miss those days. I often look out my office window and wish I could step back into childhood when things were so simple. They don't worry about making a truck payment, or having a check come in before bills are due. They’re not thinking about retirement or having a good healthcare plan. Life is simple… play wall ball, chase this girl or that guy, or spin around until I feel sick... all equally good choices.

Come to think of it, we’re kind of like ants rebuilding their mounds… we’re so busy, and the things we busy ourselves with seem so important at the time, but from the outside looking in those things are ultimately meaningless.

I really think we need to simplify our lives and start investing in the eternal.

One day all of our earthly treasures will pass away. Designer jeans will wear out, cars will break down, things will go out of style… fill in the blank… whatever it might be, if it is of the earth it will pass away.

This is tough for us because we are so caught up in the now; but the more we separate ourselves from perishable things, then the more we will experience true freedom and true happiness in this life. And I’m not talking about this superficial happiness that is preached in the health wealth gospel… I’m talking about true happiness that can only come from walking in line with God’s intended order.

I hope we start taking more time to weigh our investments and focus on the life to come. Maybe it means selling your stuff and giving to the poor. Maybe it means giving a burger and talking to a homeless man about his situation. Maybe it means giving your life to ministry. Maybe it means getting more plugged into your church. Who knows where God will lead you... I only ask that you listen and be obedient.

"Turn your eyes upon Jesus... and the things of earth will grow strangely dim..."

One Bite at a Time

“You couldn’t stop the earth quake, you can’t fix Los Angeles, and you’re not going to be able to heal him.”

I went and saw the movie “The Soloist” the other night, which turned out to be quite delightful. I don’t think I’ll ever purchase it for my own library, but I would recommend going and seeing it.

Jamie Fox plays the role of a music prodigy that becomes mentally ill while at college in Ohio. Eventually he finds himself homeless in the streets of Los Angeles where the character played by Robert Downy Jr. (a columnist) discovers him and finds inspiration to write a story about his situation.

At the climax of the movie everything completely falls apart with the soloist and Robert Downy Jr. finds himself sitting next to his ex-wife pouring out his heart. It is at this moment she replies, “You couldn’t stop the earth quake, you can’t fix Los Angeles, and you’re not going to be able to heal him.”

I think this is what overwhelms so many of us as a society. We see all the sickness, poverty, and injustices around us, and then we realize that the surface has just been scratched as we take notice of these problems being magnified in third world countries... we get to the point where we feel like we just can’t do anything about it.

King Solomon had a similar reflection in Ecclesiastes chapter 4. He presents a very similiar observation to the world and then provides two ways in which we can respond to the evil that surrounds us: One is to fold our arms and give up; and the other is to keep ourselves so busy that we lose sight of reality.

How true is this of us today? We either completely give up because our efforts cannot even make a dent, or we busy ourselves with our own lives to the point that anything outside of our world is either opaque, or worse case, merely a fictional tail.

Wednesday morning at Chick-Fil-A we took prayer request, and a few of the high school girls commented on how they had a lot going on. At this point Pete Carter stepped in and offered some fatherly wisdom. He gave some simple advice that I have heard before, but it is often necessary to be reminded of such things.

He asked Laura if she knew how to eat an elephant. “No!” She replied, with a puzzled look on her face. Then he paused, and just looked at her for a second, and I butted in, “One bite at a time.” Then Pete chimed in, almost to echo me, “One bite at a time!”

So how does this tie into pushing back the evil that surrounds us?

First it is important to understand what the gospel is. I think some people mistake the gospel for taking care of social issues. But here’s the problem with that, the gospel is in no way tied to anything that we do… it is by grace, through faith alone. Then as a result of the gospel in our lives we should long to see justice brought to these social issues.

My fear is that we can become so overwhelmed with all the evil in the world that we never do anything about it. What if the Church started to take care of social issues instead of letting the government play the churches role? What if we had a positive influence on the society around us? What if non-Christians stopped thinking of us as self-centered bickering intolerant jerks, and saw us as an accurate representation of Christ?

Let’s face it, people are going to hate us because they hated Christ first; but people didn’t hate Christ because he went around healing the sick and caring for the oppressed. They hated him because he claimed to be God.

If we’re going to start impacting the world in a positive way, we can’t look at the big picture and become overwhelmed. We are going to have to take one bite at a time. I like the way John Randles puts it... "One day you'll be sitting on your front porch and your grandkids will ask you "What's that out in the yard?" Then you can say, "It used to be an elephant." And when they ask what happened to it, you can say, “I ate that sucker!”

As you observe all the evil in the world do not become overwhelmed and ignore it or give up... take one bite at a time and encourage those around you. Remember these three things: You cannot eat an elephant in one sitting. Many hands makes small work. And, if we all did a little, we could all do a lot.