ants and chalk lines

do you know how you can stop ants from coming into your house? all you have to do is to draw a chalkline at your doorstep (or wherever the ants usually enter) . they would not be able to cross the chalkline. oh.. and if you want to trap some ants (just for fun.. we tried it at school last year), just draw a box around them using chalk. you can watch them go around in circles inside the square you drew. they wouldn't be able to cross the chalklines.

it is amusing (in a semi-cruel sort of way, admittedly) to watch ants behave in such a manner. after all, it is just a chalkline. it's not as if there's a physical barrier stopping them from going where they are supposed to. a friend of mine said that the chalk deadens the ants' senses.. so in effect, they are not able to tell where they are going. they get lost.

sometimes i have to admit, i behave like those ants do. i get trapped in my own little "chalk box." imprisoned by problems, worries, anxieties and all sorts of fears. paralyzed by uncertainty and doubt. caged in, not by metal bars or steel walls.. but by my own "chalk lines" - low self esteem, feelings of unworthiness, hopelessness and despair.

others may wonder what i could possibly worry about.. what burdens i could possibly have. and like my students watching the trapped ants, they scratch their heads.. unable to understand how anybody could be imprisoned by "chalk lines."

but i, like the ants, know that these chalklines are about as real as steel cages. trapped inside, lost and with no place to go.. there simply is no way out - except for Somebody to break the borders surrounding me.. and show me the way to freedom again.

nobody wants to be trapped. especially not in an "imaginary" cage that seems so real. but thank God that because He is Lord.. i don't have to be. neither do the ants :)