Have you ever observed an anthill?

I’ve been floored the last two weeks by the never-ending antics going on in our  anthill.  We bought the commercial habitat so that we could easily view ants burrowing and tunneling through the sand and foraging for food above ground.

Our little ants scurry around as if there is no tomorrow.  Their time has nearly ended in the anthill.  The life expectancy is about two – four weeks and…I’m sad to say they are down to about seven.   Even though their time is short, these seven still scurry and eat and store and bury as if there is no tomorrow.  They rarely stop.

I wonder how much I am like the ants.

I rarely go a morning without having my time alone with the Lord.  We talk and I read and write.  It is a sweet time.  I think though, that there might be a disconnect in certain seasons of life, from that morning time to living time.  You know…when the coffee pot is empty and it’s time to get moving…get scurrying.

I am going through a tremendously busy season and I’m thinking about this.  The other day when I looked down at the anthill and watched I had a sense of having the viewpoint of God.  I thought to myself, “I wonder if this is what I look like to him?”  All of this scurrying and scurrying and not having the sense to stop and look up and pray throughout my day.

It’s in these busy seasons that I can soon turn from joy to loathing the next day.  It can happen so quickly.  Things begin looking dark, meaningless, hard and overwhelming and it doesn’t take long to realize why.  Some say we shouldn’t busy ourselves so and I agree…we should look at our busyness.  Even if we are careful and wise about our busyness though, we still go through times where it feels the whole world is on our shoulders.  Things happen…sometimes all at once.

The remedy has always been to begin to begin again…the thankfulness and praise and prayer throughout the day.  This remedy has worked…it truly has broken me out of the times of life when I bend towards burning out.  It “works” because the rememdy truly is Jesus.  But…I think this week…God is impressing upon me the root problem.  The problem isn’t just that life gets busy.  The problem may be…or is…pride.

You see…like the ant…I can get it done.  Some days and weeks  I  lift rocks as big as my body (like the ant) and carry it up and down a mountain.  And that is just it.  I do it.  I do it sometimes without asking for help.  I just do it and keep going and I don’t think much beyond that.  I’m thinking that at the heart of not stopping to ask for help is perhaps pride.  The result is burn-out.  The rememdy is once again drawing from his strength through prayer instead of myself.

So I begin to begin again…to experience joy in life from living off of Christ himself.  Instead of myself.  Because pride keeps us scurrying without prayer and Christ himself keeps us joy-filled.

^“11 May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, ¹² giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. ¹³ He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:11-14).