Week 40/2024
A word fitly spoken is like APPLES OF GOLD in a setting of silver – Proverbs 25v11
The Book of Proverbs has much to say about sluggards or lazy people. Today we will look at a verse in chapter 6 verse 6: “Go to the ant, you lazy one, observe its ways and be wise”.
Why not the busy bee as an illustration? Bees selflessly dedicate their lives flitting from flower to flower for pollen and nectar to take back to their hives, but because they forage alone, when they get tired they get disorientated and lost. Ants on the other hand work as a team with no slackers – we all know the expression “an army of ants”. Together they labour selflessly in the service of their Queen and as a result no obstacle is too difficult for them to overcome.
The reality is we can be industrious on our own, but when times of loneliness and tiredness come, we lose our mojo. However, if we are part of the Lord’s Army, we always have a teammate to keep us going – as Ecclesiastes chapter 4 verse 9 says: “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labour: if either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up”. In our Christian lives we need to be part of a church community so we can encourage and be encouraged, challenge and be challenged, teach and be taught. How true is Proverbs 27v17!
“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another”. Ants are known to build unbelievably sized colonies – in Melbourne Australia they constructed a super colony measuring approximately 100 km wide! Imagine what we can achieve if we all work together and put aside petty differences, self-glory and greed instead “esteeming others better than ourselves”. In case you find that a sign of weakness, remember that “humility is not thinking less of ourselves, but rather thinking of ourselves less”.
God Bless
From the former writings of Graeme Greenwood