Ants

For being so small, ants are held in high regard by the writers of Proverbs. We should consider the ways of the ant and be wise (Proverbs 6:6-8 and 30:24-25). The ants’ continuous work draws stark contrasts with laziness. Their industrious nature keeps them working together toward a common goal. They’re always doing something – searching, moving, gathering, building, storing, advancing – and Proverbs implies we should imitate their habits.

I hate the little buggers.

And when they started searching, moving, gathering, building, storing and advancing inside our house, I went on a primal ant-killing rampage. Squashing them, poaching them by pouring boiling water onto the anthill outside, and spraying them (Helpful recipe: 1 teaspoon rubbing alcohol, 1.5 teaspoons liquid dish soap, and a few cups of water in a spray bottle works just as good as Raid, smells better, and is cheaper, too). It was satisfying because I felt like I was doing something.

But they used that much-lauded industrial nature, and the army kept coming.

For all my blood-lust against the invaders, it didn’t do me much good. For every visible ant I eliminated, there were many, many more I could not see, including the roots of the problem: the nest and the queen. The ants would keep coming and coming unless they were eliminated at the source.

To get to the nest and queen requires the bait-and-wait approach. The bait seems like food, but is actually poison that gets carried back to the nest and spread around.

Then you wait.

And you trust the poison will do its job without seeing any results instantly. Which is the problem for an ant-hater like me. I wanted immediate proof. Instead, ironically, I got a lesson in patience from the tiny workaholics.

We all want immediate results. The quicker the better, usually.

But if we want God’s help to get to the root of the problem, therefore providing a true long-term solution, we have to exercise some prayer and faith, and wait for Him to work. When we do that, “the end of the matter is better than its beginning” because “patience is better than pride” (Ecclesiastes 7:8).

What problems are you facing that seem to demand a quick response, but actually require a healthy dose of patience to get to the source of the problem?