But this insect which is
no larger than a quarter has the power to send even the strongest men
running. They perch themselves boldly on
our walls as we watch television, in our kitchen sinks as we prepare the
evening meal, under our beds as we ready ourselves for a night of sleep, and
when they are stumbled upon, they send a shockwave of fear throughout our
nervous system.
Our defense to roaches
is simple but drastic; kill them. It
doesn’t enter our mind to catch and relocate them (like we would do with
lizards or butterflies that become trapped in our homes). And we don’t just kill them, but we squash
them as quick and as hard as we can. It
seems kind of extreme, yet most of us can’t help ourselves when we see one of
these creatures.
Why does such a small
and innocent creature create so much havoc in our lives? Why do we turn into this monster when one of
these beings enters our homes?
My wife and I
encountered the supremacy of one of these insects recently. Our night began to unravel when she brought
the basket of laundry in from the garage to our bedroom to fold it. Moments later she let out a short but heart
stopping scream. Whatever I was doing
at the moment became less significant as I did what any man would do and jumped
to my feet to see what the matter was. As I entered our bedroom I saw her
standing cautiously by the basket as she pointed and said, “roach!” “Oh that’s it?” I bluffed; hoping she didn’t
see the fear building in me. I knew I
was the one to solve this issue, but I didn’t look forward to that moment the
roach and I would stare each other down as if we were in the octagon on the
final round of the fight.
My first attempt at
eliminating this bug was an utter failure as it sent the roach into hiding in
the wrinkles of our bedspread. I was now
on a mission to find this thing as there would be no way that I would be
sleeping with it. An hour into the roach
hunt, the room was torn apart, furniture was relocated as I desperately tried
to locate this bug. Unfortunately, my altercation with the roach had managed to
only injure the insect by severing one of its legs, leaving it like an angry
wounded bear looking for revenge (at least this is the tricks my mind is
playing on me). I tore the room apart
hoping to finish what I had started. But
the roach was a master at hiding. I could not find him, and my wife and I knew
we had to eventually fall asleep in that room. I never found the roach again, and needless
to say, sleep tried to evade me that night as the roach did, as my mind was
wrapped up around the thought of that roach being in our bedroom somewhere
Its four days later and
I am still looking to settle the score with that nuisance. But let’s be real, why do I give something so
small so much power over me? Why do I
allow something that ultimately has no control over me the control to ruin a
night of sleep? Why do I allow it to
play tricks in my mind telling me all sorts of lies like, “the roach is going
to crawl into my mouth while I am sleeping.”
That is just silly. I am allowing
the roach to do more harm than it’s already doing by allowing it to control my
mind and emotions.
This true story above
represents a struggle Christians face daily.
The small things in life
tend to control us and do more harm to our existence than they have the ability
to do in and of themselves.
Let me give you two
examples of this.
You’re doing 7mph over
the speed limit when you are pulled over.
You deserve a ticket, but you are hoping the officer lets you slide
since the infringement is not that bad. But
the policeman sees it a different way and issues you a $110.00 ticket. It’s a done deal. But the rest of your day is full of anxiety
as you allow yourself to dwell over a ticket that has already been issued. At lunch with co-workers, you can’t stop
belittling the police officer who pulled you over as you unfairly describe him
as a man who you saw as insensitive. As
the day goes on, your mind is beginning to spiral out of control as you think
about how you are going to pay for it.
You start to irrationally believe you will have to forego paying the
light bill, as money is tight and there is just no way to squeeze in $110.00. Then you start dwelling about the points on
your license and the insurance rates that are going to go up, causing more
stress and anxiety. Your thinking only
leads to irrational thoughts, and consumes your mind the rest of your day, thus
this $110.00 ticket has done more harm to you than it was intended to do by you
allowing it to control your mind and emotions.
Let’s look at one other
example. At a recent doctor visit, the
doctor notices a mole on your arm. His off
the cuff comment is, “Hmm, that doesn’t look good, let’s remove it.” The horror stories of skin cancer flood your
mind as he scrapes the mole off and sends it off to be biopsied. You wonder, “why did he say hmmmm? That wasn’t a good hmmm.” And now you have to wait five days for the
results. You hardly sleep or eat those days
as you are consumed with the thought of having cancer and the result that it will
have on your life. You travel through
emotions that should only be reserved for a person who actually has cancer, and
not one who is simply imagining that he does.
Your anxiety level is high, you call multiple friends to find peace, yet
this small mole accompanied with the “Hmmm” from the doctor has set your world
in a tailspin. The biopsy comes back
clean, yet your spirit went through a whole spectrum of emotions that it wouldn’t
have otherwise.
Be it a rumor about
yourself, a possible financial hardship, or a teacher sending a note home with
your child about some disturbing behavior they saw that day, small things can
control us more than they should if we let our guard down and allow the lies or
the worries about everything that can go wrong, plague us until we find the
answers we need.
The question is; how
does one release himself from this mental prison that is built on these worries
in life?
When you face those moments
in life, you need to take major corrective measures to your thought life in
order to gain control over your thoughts that are running wild. You must decide to not let your mind wander
any farther from the sanctity of the Gospel and the truth of what you already
know, and lock onto what is good.
In 2 Corinthians 10,
Paul tells us that the war we are in daily is not a war of flesh and bones but
a spiritual war, a war that is unseen.
As you live out your day, the enemy of the Gospel wages war against you,
using every day scenarios to lay land mines in your thought life. The enemy knows that your mind is the key
battlefield to controlling you. So he
will look to ambush you throughout the day in order to take captive your
mind. He will use the seemingly innocent
things to hide behind as he looks to devour mental ability to reason. Something such as a speeding ticket or an
irregular mole is simply the bush in which the enemy has chosen to hide behind
to carry out his attack.
Your defensive move is
to take back your mind with the truth of the Gospel. Paul says,
“ 4 For
the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to
destroy strongholds. 5 We
destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God,
and take every thought captive to obey Christ, 6 being ready to punish every disobedience, when
your obedience is complete. [1]
Therefore,
you must take back what the enemy looks to imprison daily. You must grab hold of these thoughts and
subject them to Christ. You tell
yourself that Christ has forgiven you of your sins including the speeding
ticket, that it was a mistake, and that you will pay the consequences of that
mistake, but at the end of the day, your Lord has wiped that sin away and will
provide for your needs according to his riches in glory.
You lock
on to the fact that Christ is your healer, and that one day you will be without
blemish. You praise God not based on a
good biopsy, but regardless of the results of the biopsy. You praise God for the life he has given you,
and the breath you currently have, and for the opportunities to reveal his
glory in this health situation.
Taking
captive every thought is a discipline that you need to sharpen in order to
stand against the fiery arrows of your enemy.
You may
need to do that right now. Is there
something in your life that has gained control over you that shouldn’t
have? Is there something you have been
worrying about that is full of what ifs and lies? Practice taking it captive by subjecting it
to the truth of the Bible. Take that
thought captive, gain control over it and destroy it. The result is, you will live once again in
the freedom that God has designed you to live in.
For me,
I will be able to sleep, even if the roach is still under the bed.
