In the Dailies

To Be Like a Fly

August 27, 2008

A week ago I mentioned watching a fly for fifteen minutes. Have you ever done that? Just sat there and watched a fly? They’re actually pretty cool. This particular fly was on my windshield. He sat directly in my line of sight while I began the monotonous trip home from Philadelphia.

I didn’t want to flip the wipers and smear bug guts all over the window, so instead I played a sadistic game of testing his strength. I watched him intently while speeding through residential streets en route to the highway, waiting for him to flutter off into oblivion. He didn’t budge. I suspected he was dead, but no; I saw him wash his filthy little face at the red light.

As a side note, does anyone else find it ironic that flies who typically buzz around garbage or feces are still concerned with personal hygiene? Of course, he could have just been licking his lips. I may be giving him more credit than he’s due.

The light turned green, so I began my fun little game again. This time I watched my speed, too. Ten miles per hour; nothing. Fifteen miles per hour; still nothing. Around twenty miles per hour I saw him hunker down closer to the windshield, but then I caught another red light.

Now this was interesting: while we were stopped, he shifted his position. Up to this point he had been kind of diagonal on the windshield. Now he moved to align his weird little fly body his with his head straight down (toward the hood) and his derriere up (toward the roof of the car — yes, I still refuse to call my vehicle a “van”).

With his new position, this little bugger held on until almost seventy miles per hour! I’m not exactly sure where I lost him; I was trying to watch traffic, too, but I know it was somewhere between fifty and seventy-five. Isn’t that amazing? His little fly feet could hold him tight against glass, a surface with no traction, while facing a wind resistance up to seventy miles per hour!

We need to have faith like fly feet.

“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.” – Hebrews 10:23 (NIV)

Have you ever let go of your faith? Maybe not your faith, but your convictions. I tend to think if everything is going smoothly, then I must be doing what God wants. When the first big wind comes, I doubt what I thought to be true. I’m not talking about abandoning my beliefs or Scriptural truths, but rather what I think God wants me to do — this ministry or that, this path or the one over there. When resistance comes, rarely is my first thought to hunker down and cling tighter to my convictions. Instead I think “Well, I must have been wrong” and I let go.

I know I’m fallible and God is not. Who am I to believe I can fully understand His wishes for me? But who am I to think I deserve a smooth ride just for doing what He asks?

So this is what I’ve learned from a fly:

I would like to add that it’s okay to fail. Unfortunately, my illustration doesn’t go that far. My fly friend may be plastered on the grill of whatever car was behind me. Good thing God loves us more than flies (Matthew 6).

So what have you learned from unexpected sources?

Entry Filed under: faithfulness,instructions,sanctification,trials,trust,truth. .