The Grass Hopper

With fall finally getting here and the weather cooling down, me and my family like to go hangout in the backyard cooking out and letting the kids run their energy out playing. One evening when my wife and I were playing with the kids, I notice my daughter was on the other side of the yard roaming from spot to spot. She would walk to one area in the yard, squat down and look at something. But then she'd stand right back up, walk over to another spot, squat down and look at something and do it again and again. My curiosity got me so I walked over to her to see what in the world she was doing. With my 1 year old daughter, you never know what she's doing. She's our curious child, our accident-prone child, our wondering child so who knew what she was doing. Once I got over there I saw what she was doing or actually following was a small grass hopper. She thought it was the most amazing thing and couldn't wonder why it would hop away when she got close to it.   

After we all went in and got my son to sleep and my wife was putting my daughter to bed, I started thinking about that little grass hopper and how it would jump from one piece of grass to another and it got me thinking....we as humans can be a lot like a grass hopper in jumping from one blade of grass to another and even jump from one yard to another yard. We've all heard the phrase "the grass is greener on the other side" and that's probably one of the biggest reasons why a lot of people can't ever be happy. The more I thought about it the more God started to reveal and show me things. 

1 - The Grass Isn't Always Greener 
I can talk about this for days but I won't. In our fast pasted, instant gratification society we tend to always find the better in other situations. Someone always got it better, someone always get it faster and someone always got it easier. Even if it's true on some level, it's never the case. Why do I say that? Think about it. Yes, some people have it better, get it faster and have it easier than you but they have the same amount of work to do as you. For example: when you build a new house and it doesn't have any grass, you have 2 options; 1-bring in rolls of grass/sod and plant it (which is instant yard) or 2-bring in seeds and plant it (which is the cheapest yet longer process). With these two different choices, they both have the same outcome. It doesn't matter which option you choose or about to choose, you still have to water and nurture the sod or the seed. One of the most quoted piece of scripture is Psalms 46:10....Be still and know I am God. When we want to jump ship, or grass in this metaphor, we must wait and think about it. Did God place you on/in this piece of "grass" for you to abandon it in mid season? No, it might not be what "you desire" at this time. Yes, God does give us the desires of our heart....but how can He give you a nice, big, green, easy (to our eyes) to maintain yard that's HUGE and awesome when you can't take care of the small and minimal yard?  

2 - You're Placed Where You Need To Be 
When you're in the trenches and pushing forward, sometimes you forget where you've been. Because of that, we loose site of what we're suppose to do and why we're doing it. Once we get to that point, we start playing the comparison game or for some people, start comparing MORE. Thanks to social media, we're able to see the successes of everyone (because people don't post about unsuccessful events or failures in their life or ministry) and start wondering "When is that going to be ME??" When you let the chatter of your peers/hero/other people's successes start to speak louder than God's voice, you'll start wondering or start to push your way to that piece of grass WHEN in all actuality, God has you where you are to grow yourself and/or the ministry to what He needs it to be and not what YOU want it to be. A perfect example of this would be in the book of Genesis in the story of 2 brothers, twins actually. In the story of Jacob and Esau, Jacob was envious of his older twin brother Esau. Because Esau was born first, he got all the birth rights. Jacob wanted to be where Esau was so badly that he ended up cheating his own brother out of he's birth rights! 

3 - When We Get Spooked, We Jump 
Just like that grass hopper would jump away from my daughter when she got close, we tend to want to jump when we get spooked, when things get tough, when things don't go our way. It's probably the smartest thing to do for the grass hopper to jump away from my daughter instead of letting her grab it and poke it and probably shack it until it didn't know what was up or down. BUT then after she "examined" it, she'd put it back down and let it hop on it own way and never bother it again. Just like when we go though storms or valleys in our walk with God, if we would stand there and weather the storm and let it pass, it won't bother us. But if we keep running from the storm, it will always trail us and we will always run. And the thing is, you can't out run the storm. It will get you and if you just stay where you are and not be spooked and run, God will bring you though it and make you stronger. Look at Job. The entire book of Job is one of the BEST examples of going through MULTIPLE storms, Job staying where he was and God not just replacing what he lost but giving him MORE. Job could've easily packed up and ran but the question is, would God replaced what he lost and if God did, would he give him more? 

One of the hardest things to do is to not think sometime down the road in life that the grass is greener on the other side. Sometimes it's easier to jump to the next piece of grass than to stay where you are and let God take control and guide you. You will never feel accomplished or fulfill in your purpose in life if your chasing the next best thing and the next best piece of grass. And then even harder thing to do is to not jump to the next best piece of grass when you see a small door open to that next best piece of grass. My wife is always telling me and reminding me to not settle or chase the good but the great. 
--- Good is the Enemy of GREAT ---