Is there something you enjoy doing or feel you should do, but you have trouble finding the time to do it? I enjoy taking a walk in the woods. It refreshes me and brings me closer to God. But I wasn’t doing it very often.
So last summer when I was diagnosed with cancer, I promised myself I’d take more walks in the woods. This promise had to wait. While I was doing chemotherapy, I sunburned easily, and then came a long winter followed by surgeries and radiation. Finally, the weather and my health began to improve.
I started taking daily walks and enjoyed it very much except for one little thing. I started my walk, but it wouldn’t be too long, before some little black bugs would start hovering around my eyes and ears. The bugs didn’t bite, but they were annoying. I’d swat in the air at them to encourage them to go elsewhere, but it would only help for a second or two. The little bugs would come right back even if I changed the direction or the speed I was walking.
Even more annoying was the fact that, occasionally, these small bugs would fly into my eyes. Sometimes I wouldn’t get very far on the walk, and I’d end up turning around and going back home, so I could look in a mirror and get the bug out of my eye.
Bugs
One day when one of these bugs flew in my eye near the beginning of a walk, I decided I wasn’t going to turn around or let it ruin my walk. I closed that eye and kept walking. I thought about how all the beauty was still there. All of God’s creatures and creations were just as joyful and radiant as always. I had been letting one little thing distract me from seeing it and enjoying it.
Have we ever let one person at church bug us and keep us from enjoying our worship time with God? Do we let one thing from the past blind us so we don’t see a bright future? Do we let one little thing about someone irritate us and ruin a good relationship?
That day a little bug taught me a beneficial eye-opening lesson. When we don’t focus on the little annoyances and discouragements, we can better enjoy what God has created and planned for us and move forward in faith.
“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things” (Philippians 4:8).
