My All In All - Lessons From An Ant

The greatest lesson I learnt today, came not from my lecturer in class.

Nor did it come from an inspirational book cleverly written to get people inspired about inspiration and do little else.

Nope. The greatest lesson I learnt for today appeared suddenly, unexpectedly, and came as a reminder in the form of one of the tiniest and least of creatures:

A humble ant.

A humble common household ant, to be exact. It was brown, miniscule and rather dull in colour; a lowly sort of creature that you'd quickly want to flick or squish upon sight.

And so, the ant and I crossed paths briefly tonight. I, while listening to some worship songs that were playing on my Macbook; the ant, while she was on my Macbook foraging for food.

How my Macbook even ended up as a plausible source of food supply is another story altogether. It was all thanks to someone who came to my room, had durian, poked around on my Macbook with sticky fingers... oh wait, I've just revealed the entire story. Darn.

And so, I was listening to a series of worship songs on YouTube, reflecting on God when suddenly, I noticed a tiny movement on my keyboard.

"Eeww.. it's an ant! Gross..." was my first thought. But strangely, the instinct to flick it away never came.

Instead, I found myself curiously drawn to the ant's odd behaviour on my keyboard.

Apparently, a little yellow spot of food on the board had caught her attention. Being the proverbial hardworker that she was, the ant dutifully proceeded to analyse the food, probably deciding if it was worth carrying back to her home.

As I continued to observe her, I was fascinated by the subsequent changes in her behaviour. At first, all the ant did was to observe the food before her; circling it lazily, occasionally giving it a casual poke or so. Then, having decided that it was worth taking it back, the ant started to give it a big tug.

It didn't budge.

Not one to be easily thwarted, the ant tried to tug at the food again. And again. And again.

Have you ever seen an ant panic?

I watched the ant, once calm and collected in her actions, work herself into a little ant panic. Having failed to move the food with a simple tug, the ant began to climb on top and gave an almighty yank on it. Failing once more to move the immovable, the ant started clinging onto the food in a futile attempt to do the impossible.

I have to admit. I felt almost sorry to see the poor creature try to move something that was obviously stuck. And to watch her fail repeatedly despite her best efforts, not even knowing that she wouldn't be able to move it on her own, struck a chord of pity in me.

So I decided to help her dislodge the food (how kind of me huh).

Then I realised I couldn't do it.

Not because I was unable to or unwilling to help the ant to dislodge the food. On the contrary, I was so much bigger, stronger than the ant that it was almost laughable to think of me doing something as trivial as that.

The reason was simple: the ant wouldn't let me.

In her panic to move something that meant a lot to her, the ant kept frantically running around the food; sometimes clinging onto it, sometimes running around as if in search for other fellow ants to help her do the impossible.

And as long as she stayed close to the food, I couldn't move it for her. Had I intervened, she would probably have been squashed or badly maimed by the 'All Powerful Finger'.

All she had to do was to just step aside, let me dislodge the food for her and all would be fine and dandy. And I wouldn't even expect something in return (seriously, what can I get from an ant that would be of use to me).

But of course, I couldn't communicate to her that I'd like to help her. Even if I had said something, she wouldn't be able to comprehend what I'm trying to do.

Eventually, I couldn't take it. Moving the Macbook, I hoped to scare the ant a little away from the food.

I succeeded; so much so that I succeeded in spooking the creature and she ran away for good.

'Oh well...' I sighed. Before me was the object of the ant's futile efforts. With little ado, I flicked the food away with such ludricous ease that was frankly, quite astounding and ridiculous.

If only the ant had waited.

Anyway, as I mulled over the tiny little drama, I realised it was such a nice simple reminder of two simple truths - that all things are possible with God, and that God Himself has said that He'll never leave us nor forsake us, so I can boldly say 'The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man can do unto me.'

Anyone who's been a Christian for a while would understand the straightforward implications behind The Ant And I.

How often do we struggle before God over something important to us that's impossible for us to handle on our own; yet we refuse to step aside to let God intervene and help us?

We tug, we pull, we run around and around in circles looking for help from others, and then run back to our problem or situation and continue to try harder.

In the end, more often than not, our best efforts end in futility.

And throughout all our frustrations, God is there, watching us and waiting to intervene on our behalf. It's not that God lacks the ability to help, for He's all-powerful; nor does he lack the desire to help us, as He's a loving God.

Perhaps it's because in our attempts to help ourselves, we become so entangled or stuck onto the problem that, if God intervenes directly, we might get hurt in the process.

Or maybe it's because we're so busy running around trying to solve it, we forget to look upwards instead of sidewards for help.

Or maybe we're too distrusting. We think that God expects us to give Him something back in return for the help He gives, like a 'one-time' transaction between two parties.

Unlike the ant, we can speak to God and ask Him directly for His help. Sometimes, I'd suppose situations would be so much better and so less tiring if we just step aside, and say to God "God I can't move this or do this. Will you help me?"

It was a simple reminder; delivered to me in a simple manner by an even simpler creature.

I cannot recall which worship song I was listening to at that point of time, but I do recall listening to 'You Are My All In All' somewhere. Surely He is our all in all, from the tiniest triviality of life to the gravest of situations, nothing is impossible for Him to do if we would just relinquish our all-too-tight control over our problems, and just trust Him to take over.

"Behold, I (am) the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?" - Jeremiah 32:27 (KJV)

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