April 20

Once upon a time...

 An ant met an elephant.

 And the ant fell in love with an elephant... Despairingly, she fought with all her strength for this passion and one day, finally, the elephant surrendered to that love.

 So, the couple spent a night of love.

 But, something happened. 

The next morning, when the ant woke up, she realized that the elephant had died and she began to cry:

 

- My God, because of ONE night of love, I will spend the rest of my life digging a grave!"

At first sight, this story may sound like a  joke ... But this story has much more to teach us ...

Have you ever seen an ant fall in love with an elephant? It would never work... But many times don't we do  do the same thing: get excited by things that do not fit us? Illusions, fantasies... Maybe you wanted to be a singer, but you can't sing well... Maybe you wanted to be a soccer player, but you became a business man... Maybe you dreamed about that career and you fight for that, but when you reached that position you realized that you were not made for that! And life becomes so boring when we are not in the place we were made to be...

 

        

 

Many times we negotiate, make deals with wrong people?

But pay attention:

“Do not be yoked together with unbelievers.  For what do righteousness and wickedness

have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?” II Corinthians 6:14

Many times we commit this mistake in our relationships!

 

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”Isaiah 5:20

Why don't we ask the Lord for help when we are making plans?

Moving back to the story, the ant fought with all her strength... And how many times we do not invest heavily in something? We even invest things we don't have... We lose so many things! Time, money, sleepless nights, direction, friends, family, health...

Then the ant achieves this night of love, but the elephant dies ... What a tragedy ... Both were not supposed to be together,  that's why the story ends up with death coming and finishing everything... If the ant had not insisted in this wrong passion, both ant and elephant might not have needed to die...
Likewise, how many times we need to go through a tragic situation to wake up and change direction? As a friend of mine, just "taking on the lips" is often that we see the need to improve or change something ...

“ For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23b

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

 John 10:10

And to finish, the ant will still have to dig a pit for the elephant...

Imagine the scene: an ant opening a pit to bury an elephant ... The more she digs, the deeper the hole becomes...  Probably the ant will have difficulties to get out of this grave. She may not have the strength to get out of there after so much effort.

Are you feeling like this ant?

Ok, the Lord is able to help you!

“In all your ways submit to Him,

    and He will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:6

The first way is: by raising other ants to help to clean this mess!

That's why we must go to the church!

That's why we are called to be together!

The second way is: asking us to do nothing to solve the problem... The Lord asks us to keep on moving towards Him, because He has everything under His control!

 But sometimes the ant has to fight the elephant...

 We are weak, but the Lord we serve is strong! The impossible things are possible to solve for Him!

It's time to find out if there are elephants around us, and which kind of elephants...

Some of them the Lord will call us to fight...

From some of them the Lord will instruct us to be apart or even to run away...

On this day, let us ask God for discernment, wisdom, to understand if there is something being offered to us that is not part of what God planned for our lives... 

Remember that disobedience leads to death and death is not what God has for us ...  What He has for us is life and life in abundance (John 10:10)!

God bless you!

Ana.