Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: SLOTH (indolence; laziness) (01/29/15)
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TITLE: Go to the Ant | Previous Challenge Entry
By Terry R A Eissfeldt
02/05/15 -
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Held up in Proverbs - the Book of Wisdom - as the be all and end all example on how to live.
But if ants are so great why did God make me a Grasshopper?
It’s not that I’m lazy. I can work really hard. It’s just that what I prefer to focus my energies on doesn’t seem to translate as industrious to the majority of the world.
I admit it. I’ve been called a Dreamer … Rose-coloured glasses firmly fixed … a ‘creative-type’ … having no sense of time … or reality.
Ants, they make me feel so small.
And that Proverbs 31 Woman … mocking me … taunting me … making me feel like a mistake … like a sluggard … like a sloth.
And we all know slothfulness is one of the Big Seven.
It’s not that I don’t want to be ant-like … or far above rubies-like. Of course I do. I just keep failing and failing and failing.
I feel bad for the grasshoppers and the sloths. Just because grasshoppers sing and dance all summer and sloths are slow moving, how does that make them the example of what not to be.
One Sunday morning, after a particularly difficult week … difficult because I seemed to be failing in every area of my life; housework, health, business, relationships, and spiritual growth, I finished leading worship and sat down. I was hoping for a good word from Pastor. I needed encouragement. But he turned to that blasted verse in Proverbs.
“Go to the ant you sluggard …”
The very last verse I wanted to hear. Even that woman at the end of the book would have been easier to bear.
I’d had enough. I closed the Bible … and my eyes … and finally asked the question.
“If ants are so great why did You make me a grasshopper?”
Immediately I pictured dolphins in the wild. Hundreds of them spinning, flipping and walking backwards on their tails. Their permanent smiles and flashing eyes captivated me.
Then God asked me a question.
“Why do dolphins jump and leap and flip?”
“I don’t know,” I replied.
Then I saw a mountain meadow under the summer sun. Thousands upon thousands of flowers, representing every hue under heaven, gently swaying to the rhythm of the wind.
“Why do the mountain flowers bloom? Why are they so colourful?”
“I don’t know,” I replied.
“All creation gives Me glory when they do what I’ve created them to do. I’ve created you to dream, to envision, to sing, to write, to be a co-creator with Me. Don’t try and fit into another mould.”
Freedom washed over me … freedom from fitting into what others thought about me …or how I spent my energy … and my time.
I realized that the true sin of the sloth is not being slow, or still, it’s when I do not do what I’ve been created and called to do.
And wouldn’t you know at the end of the service a particularly ant-like friend came and thanked me for spending the time in God’s presence … soaking … privately worshipping … listening … writing … and sharing. She had been deeply touched by a song I shared.
Of course the dishes still have to be done. The laundry still has to be addressed. Meals are still necessary to fix. And laziness must be admonished and given no place to roost.
However, I finally accept that I am a grasshopper in an ant world.
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