The Japanese Beetle
Every fall they move in. They find some secluded spot in the house where we
can never find them, and there they multiply, as our uninvited guests, until
spring. They LOVE lights, and many times each winter we are forced to empty
their roasted bodies out of the light fixtures. Needless to say, we are always
plenty tired of Japanese Beetles by spring, and the fact that they bite doesn’t
help us to coexist any more peacefully!
Yesterday my son complained about one in his room. He said it was flying “round
and around” his ceiling fan, and he couldn’t sleep. Sure enough, there was a
Japanese beetle flying in a circle, exactly 18 inches from the fan blades. The
most interesting part, however, was that he was flying at EXACTLY the same speed
as the rotating fan. If there had been a string attaching him to one of the
blades, he couldn’t have followed it more accurately. He was caught up in the
current of the fan, and he wasn’t strong enough to break out of its grip.
I reached up to pull on the chain. I thought that if I could stop the fan, he
would fly on. But I can never figure out just how many times it is necessary to
pull the cord on a ceiling fan to get it to stop, and before I knew it, the poor
bug was circling at twice his original speed! Interestingly, this little change
actually worked to free him of the imprisoning currents. His circles because
less regular, then he alighted on the light chain where I could catch him and
put him outside.
Do you ever feel like that little Japanese beetle? Do you feel like you are
swirling around, caught up in the current of circumstance, or perhaps ensnared
by some addiction or by the results of some mistake you—or others—have made? Do
you ever feel like you are unable to break the pattern and free yourself?
The bad news, friends, is that we CANNOT free ourselves. But there IS Good News!
Jesus CAN free us! All we have to do is surrender our circumstance, our
self-created problem, our addiction to Him! Initially, things might seem a
little worse (remember how that little bug’s speed accelerated because I
couldn’t remember how many times to pull the chain???), but sometimes this is
EXACTLY what we need to be able to break free. And unlike me, Jesus knows
PRECISELY how many times to pull the chain!
Tired of aimless circling? Try Jesus! He’s happy to pull the “chain” of your
problems and set you free!
“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not
let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” (Gal 5:1)
Love in Christ,
Lyn
Lyn Chaffart, Moderator, The Nugget, Scriptural Nuggets ( www.sermonillustrator.org/minisermons/ ), Answers2Prayer Ministries, www.Answers2Prayer.org ,