Getting Together With the Ants
On the heels of a great Area Wide Unity Assembly, the thoughts of unity still course our veins. Sunday Night was great! We had 322 in attendance and the room upstairs looked like an ant colony. There were people buzzing around all over the place. The singing… the singing was like that of the angels. Lynn Campbell brought an outstanding message that people are still talking about. There is not enough that could be said good about the gathering.
Unity to God is a precious thing. As Lynn instructed, God gives us unity and it is our responsibility to keep it. “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace”. (Eph. 4:3). But, keeping it seems to be our difficulty. From all appearances, we are not a united body, as a whole. The church is fragmented and the problem is so big that it seems almost impossible to correct.
The problem is that we are looking at the wrong source for help. God is the author of unity, not man. God is the God of order, not man. If unity ever happens it must happen from God, leaning totally on His leadership.
Yesterday I was awakened again to the principle of unity when I disturbed a huge ant mound. Since fire ants are so difficult to get rid of, I feel that it is my personal responsibility to make them as miserable as possible. With my big number thirteen, I kicked the mound and scattered the top if it three or four feet away. Instantly the ants sounded the code and began scampering around to fix the problem. It was so awesome. As I watched the ants work, my mind kept racing by picture after picture of the faces I saw in the room Sunday night.
As I observed further, I wondered to myself, “why can’t the church respond that quickly when there is a danger to the body?” Why is it that we let things go on for years and years until precious people are so polarized that they are almost impossible to retrieve?
The ants seemed to move as one, even though there was thousands of them pouring out of the mound. The tiny grains of dirt that I had so haplessly scattered, were being retrieved and carried back to the mound. Some went after the dirt, others went after the eggs and others began cleaning out the tunnels to the center of the mound. I thought of how wise God was when He told us to “Go to the ant…”. You would think that the ants would have had to have a meeting of some sort to decide and assign each ant citizen a particular function. You would think that they then would have had to bring in some well known ant to tell them how very important it was to work together and how each one needed to do his part for the colony. At least you would think that they should have gathered in some kind of assembly and been addressed by the Queen before they began on their own to do this, but they seemed to avoid all of that.
The difference between the ants and the church is that the ants fully recognized their orders from their Creator. God made them to work together… and they understand that. There was no need for some fancy meeting or special instructions. They simply followed the directions of their Creator.
Wouldn’t it be grand if the church would do that? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could simply follow the directions of our Creator? God created us as one, male and female, yet one.
The answer to having a unified church is to follow the creation pattern. Instead of being rebellious and doing things our way, we need to simply do it God’s way.
Unity starts in the individual, not in the church. It then moves to the family at home and then to the Body of Christ. When we are not as one within ourselves and in our families, it is impossible to become one in the church.
Let’s get back to God’s pattern. Unity in ourselves. Unity in our families and unity in the church.
Just watch the ants, they will show you how.