Craig Clouston

Think Like Ants

Go to the ant, you sluggard, consider its ways and be wise!
Proverbs 6:6

Carrie was drawn to the way Solomon dealt with laziness by encouraging people to watch ants at work—not just their laboring, but how they orchestrated events by breaking them into smaller tasks.
Since New Mexico winters didn’t drive all its insects into hibernation, Carrie decided to conduct her own experiment. Knowing the location of several anthills, Carrie took a sugar doughnut, lawn chair, and her camera equipment and set out for the woods.
Arriving at her destination, Carrie set the doughnut several feet from one particular anthill and then withdrew several more feet and set up her camera and tripod. Less than two minutes elapsed before the ants discovered the doughnut. Amazing! she thought, mesmerized by the fact that they were drawn to it so quickly. There must be thousands of them!
One by one, the ants climbed onto the doughnut, broke off a piece larger than their own body, and transported it back to the colony within the hill. In the span of two hours, the doughnut was gone! Not a single morsel of the sugary treat was left.
Returning home, Carrie took the digitally time-stamped pictures and arranged a PowerPoint slideshow for her laptop. She now had the perfect object lesson for next week’s study!

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Sometimes we are overwhelmed by the big picture. We lack the ability to see it in doable pieces. And many times, because of its overwhelming nature, we procrastinate and put off doing the work at all.
We don’t readily equate this action as being lazy; instead, we rationalize it as being over our head or out of our league and fail to consider ways in which we might approach it successfully. What a trap our fearful unwillingness to make mistakes becomes!
It is in the delay that doubt speaks to our heart. If by breaking the project down into smaller parts we could see the possibilities, we might not be so quick to delay.
Solomon says, “Think like ants!” Break events into smaller, easier-to-complete tasks. Then don’t delay; get busy!

Prayer

“Sometimes I’m overwhelmed by the things that vie for my time, Lord. Help me learn to be like the ant, humbly enlisting help and eating the doughnut a piece at a time. Amen.”