There’s a bible verse that reads as this:
Go to the ant, you sluggard;
Proverbs 6:6-8
consider its ways and be wise!
It has no commander,
no overseer or ruler,
yet it stores its provisions in summer
and gathers its food at harvest.
It was during today’s short work out in the morning where I saw the ant, and saw its continual work that it was doing. I was up early because I couldn’t sleep. I felt that there was work to do, which I was not yet doing, and I needed to do it. So I got up, started my day, and then went to do some morning exercises.
But lo and behold, as I was doing pushups mindlessly for my own vanity, an ant was already crawling around the ground, and working for its queen somewhere. It wasn’t seeking its own fame or fortune, but literally working for the better of his society, for his queen.
I don’t always think this way. I don’t put the priorities of everyone else ahead of mine, to the point of approaching a giant, in hopes of getting food for the day. That’s really mind blowing, and in many ways, it’s highly self sacrificial.
Starting with a verse, I don’t mean to preach, I just mean to look at the creatures constantly beneath my feet. I look, and I see that I am often no better than the ant. I might have intelligence, and I might have sophistication, but where is my heart for the people around me, and for the society that I exist in?
More than that, am I a sluggard, that just sits there, waiting for the world to fall into the right shape so that I can follow the well trodden path? Or perhaps I ought to make the first lanes, facing the giants ahead. Perhaps these perilous routes will lead for more to take over me thereafter.
Perhaps I might need to face giants more often, so that I can be an ant to the groups around me.