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.”

Ditches

Do not offer the parts of your body to sin … rather offer yourselves to God.
Romans 6:13

The water poured into the ditch as fast as Darnell dug. He was trying to excavate around a broken water main so his crew could fix it, but it wasn’t going very well. He ordered one of his men to dig a diversion ditch to reroute the water away from the broken pipe. He advised the man to begin the ditch at least fifty feet away and work his way back to the break. “It needs to be below the level of the main pipeline or it won’t do us any good,” Darnell added.
The man chose a low-lying area in an abandoned lot. It would hold a large volume of water if it was routed in that direction. Starting at the abandoned lot, he began the ditch. Twenty minutes later, the water broke through into the diversion ditch as the final bit of ground gave way. The water level around the broken pipe receded, and Darnell was able to excavate the area so his men could complete repairs.
Finished, they filled in the ditches using power tampers to pack the dirt and then laid new asphalt. Within hours, water was restored to residents’ homes and traffic flowed normally through the neighborhood.

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Undeterred sin becomes like a broken water main in our lives. And many times, in true remorse, we attempt to dig ourselves out, yet fail, only to sink deeper into the sin-laden soil. We get so bogged down that we believe there’s no way out. And for good reason: self-extrication never works. Eventually, sin floods our soul and drowns our spirit.
Fact: the more we dig, the deeper the ditch.
Truth: the only way out of our sin is to stop digging in the wrong ditch!
Answer: we must begin to dig a deeper ditch in God’s direction. He can and wants to cover the sin in our lives, filling in the old ditch if we allow Him.
Only by constantly offering ourselves to God—digging toward Him instead of our sinful desires—can we rise from our ditches.

Prayer

“Lord, fill in the sinful areas of my heart. Cover them with Your forgiveness and keep me from trying to dig them up again. In Jesus’ Name, amen.”