Ant Man

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Proverbs 6:6–8 Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise, which, having no captain, overseer or ruler, provides her supplies in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest.

What It Is Speaking to Me

We spend our teen years bucking our authority system (parents), our twenties convinced we have arrived at the knowledge of all things, and sometime in our thirties and forties we start to wonder if having someone still telling us what to do might actually be helpful from time to time.

Because once we are on our own, there is no one directing our everyday life. Sure, a job, responsibilities, and children in some cases end up dictating how we spend our time out of necessity, but technically we are in control. We decide how we spend our free time, our weekends. If you want to eat a 2lb bag of Skittles for dinner, no one is stopping you. If you want to stay up until 5am on a work night bingeing the latest TV show or new video game, you are the boss.

2,500 years before the Nature Channel was available, the writer of Proverbs is asking us to observe the ants. How does the ant work without a boss? It follows a pattern established by the seasons, gathers supplies in the summer, and harvests in the fall. It does what needs doing when it is time for things to be done.

The truth of the matter is that time is our most precious commodity. How are we using it? Is it productive use? Are we gathering supplies, building toward a harvest? Or are we filling our time with self-indulgence and unproductive things? There is a time and season for everything, and seasons pass. Windows of time close and they don't always reopen.

A little self-indulgence isn't necessarily sinful. The question is whether we are being wise.

Consider the ant. You are your own boss. Be a wise one.

What Is It Saying to You?

What areas of your life do you self-indulge a little too much in?

How could you change that today? Even a small step away from it?

What Are We Going to Do About It?

Identify a common area of self-indulgence (e.g., sleeping late, excessive gaming, TV bingeing) and enforce a strict and immediate limit for a season. Then see what kind of harvest you get.