Six-Legged Teachers in the Bathroom

Nov 28, 2011

Ok, so there’s this proverb that says to go to the ant, consider her ways and be wise. (Proverbs 6:6) I’ve been “blessed” to have much occasion to practice this. I’m overseas right now and often entertain the little critters.

Did you know that there are ants in every continent? In fact, the only way to escape them is to go to certain parts of Antarctica (ironic, right?). 😉  As one brother here pointed out recently, the above-mentioned proverb is addressed to sluggards, and God knew there would be lazy people all over the world. So He used the ant as an illustration that all could see! I’ve actually been learning good stuff from their principles of work and discipline. But this evening I gleaned a different lesson.

I’ve been having a problem with a strange-looking bee in my bathroom lately. He started building a nest behind the hot-water heater. When I would get up to get ready for work, he’d already be up and working. You can laugh at me, but I’d go to brush my teeth and then run out and shut the door fast when I heard him buzzing. I’d finish brushing in my bedroom, pop back in to spit and then hurry out again!  (Wondering what in the world this has to do with ants? Just wait.)

Finally I got around to telling someone who could help. They came while I was gone for work today. When I came back to my room this evening, the nest was effectively destroyed, but the place was crawling with hundreds or thousands of tiny ants! Some of them were after the prize of what I think was the remains of the dead bee. I’m not sure what the rest were doing. So I started sweeping, focusing on getting the treasured bug-remains out of the way. (In my dealings with ants, I’ve learned to remove what they’re attracted to. Then they’ll leave on their own.) They scattered and things calmed down. I was pretty happy with myself. And since I was already into it, I decided to clean the bathroom.

All of a sudden I realized that the stubborn little things hadn’t actually left. “Aiyo!” I said, using the local exclamation roughly translated, “Oh man!” The ants had migrated to a corner connecting two walls and were all concentrated there. They looked like they were strategizing about how to react to my original attack. Now what? I didn’t want to sweep them to the floor because it was now wet since I was cleaning. (Besides, I really don’t like them crawling on me with their ticklish feet!) I thought about drowning them (sorry to any insect fans out there), but was a lot of ants to send down the drain. Too many. Again, laugh if you will, but I started blowing in the direction I wanted them to go (out). The airstream scared them and after the ensuing chaos, they eventually all left.

After all that, here’s the lesson.  It has to do with something I read yesterday in a chapter of Incredible Christian by A.W. Tozer. He writes, “The devil’s master strategy for us Christians then is not to kill us physically…but to destroy our power to wage spiritual warfare.” In other words, the enemy doesn’t necessarily want us to be dead, just out of his territory. Like I didn’t care so much about killing the ants – I just wanted them OUT! So, I removed their motivation and put pressure on them to leave. The devil uses similar tactics. He makes us think that there’s no reward. We feel dry spiritually so we considering quitting. We don’t want to keep trying. Or pressure comes; circumstances discourage us and make us want to leave.

Unlike those pesky ants though, we do have a reason to stay in the battle. Glory and honor await those who do. Keep going, it’s worth it! I will conclude with Tozer’s closing thought; “the cost of quitting will be a life of peaceful stagnation. We sons of etenity just cannot afford such a thing.”