I just rescued a firefly from a spiderweb (yeah, that's what happens when I am up in the middle of the night due to jet lag :~) ), and it made me think.
See, I was trying to help this firefly. Its front 4 legs, and both antennae were tied together by this web, and it had no hope of getting out. So, using a pin, I started to remove the web from its legs. I didn't expect it to be too hard, just a little bit of web, but the way the bug was struggling, it was actually a bit of a challenge to get the web untangled without impaling it. I wished I could tell it to stop fighting, and that the fighting was just making everything worse. It was making no progress, but instead was making things hard for me.
And I thought how much like that bug I am. I get into bad situations, where I don't know what to do, and I try to fix everything on my own. I'm thrashing around, helping no one, and getting in the way of what God is trying to do. The main difference is that the firefly doesn't understand what he is doing. He didn't realize that I was trying to help him. As far as he knew, there was no way that he was getting out of that web unless he did all of the work by himself.
But I know better than that. I know that God wants to help me, and I know that I need to depend on him. Not that I need to stop doing anything, that won't work, but I need to know what God wants me to do, and stop trying to struggle against him. I need to trust, and know when to wait on him, and when to take action. And of course, I need to listen to God to know what action to take. Basically, I need to be wiser than a bug. We'll see if I manage that :~)
See, I was trying to help this firefly. Its front 4 legs, and both antennae were tied together by this web, and it had no hope of getting out. So, using a pin, I started to remove the web from its legs. I didn't expect it to be too hard, just a little bit of web, but the way the bug was struggling, it was actually a bit of a challenge to get the web untangled without impaling it. I wished I could tell it to stop fighting, and that the fighting was just making everything worse. It was making no progress, but instead was making things hard for me.
And I thought how much like that bug I am. I get into bad situations, where I don't know what to do, and I try to fix everything on my own. I'm thrashing around, helping no one, and getting in the way of what God is trying to do. The main difference is that the firefly doesn't understand what he is doing. He didn't realize that I was trying to help him. As far as he knew, there was no way that he was getting out of that web unless he did all of the work by himself.
But I know better than that. I know that God wants to help me, and I know that I need to depend on him. Not that I need to stop doing anything, that won't work, but I need to know what God wants me to do, and stop trying to struggle against him. I need to trust, and know when to wait on him, and when to take action. And of course, I need to listen to God to know what action to take. Basically, I need to be wiser than a bug. We'll see if I manage that :~)
No comments:
Post a Comment