Stink Bugs

Almost every break this school year I've found a stink bug in the curtains that hang near my bed.  Gross.  I do not deal with bugs.  Killing ants are about the furthest I'll go because the thought of feeling it crunch sends shivers down my spine.

So that you can get a visual

The other night I was home alone and found another one of these little creatures and actually made three of my friends come over and kill it for me so that I could go to sleep.  This interaction quickly turned into an hour of chaos because we realized there were actually four stink bugs and none of us felt brave enough to embark on that journey.  But after an hour of screaming and running we finally vacuumed them all up.  It was actually a pretty hilarious evening and I kept repeating that my life needs a reality show because it is just so ridiculous.  I assumed the stink bugs got in my room sometime during the summer and I never realized it because I moved back to school in August.

But then I saw another one dangling in my curtain last night.  You have got to be kidding me, I thought.  I called my dad to come kill it because like I said, killing it by myself was out of the question.  My dad was clearly annoyed because it was the millionth time I had asked him to kill a stink bug for me in the past year.  I told him about how I've been getting friends to come kill them and how this was getting out of hand.  "I have to move my bed!" I told him, "I need to move it to the other side of the room because there is something about this window that keeps bringing all these bugs in.  I can't sleep under it anymore."  He asked me if my window was open and I said no, that I haven't touched my window since the summer and it's definitely shut.  But then he lifted the blinds all the way up to the top--something I never would have thought to do.

Sure enough the window was open about an inch at the top.

I felt a little silly for not having realized that in the past six months and tried to close it but failed miserably.  Then I sat back and watched my dad try and close it, but he couldn't do it either.  We finally succeeded when we worked together.  When he pushed up on the top part of the window and I pulled down and locked the bottom.

Sometimes, we go after the annoying bugs in our lives.  We even get friends to help.  We ask for prayer and accountability.  And when that doesn't work we think of radical ways to "solve the problem," like avoiding it all together and moving to the other side of the room.

But the window is still open.  No matter the tactic we try the bugs will still eventually get to us.

It is only when we bring the problem to our Father that He points out the root of the problem.  Sin is just a surface issue.  But even when we know the cause of the problem, we can't fix it on our own.


It is only when we work with our Father that the problem is solved.

Jesus cares about the bugs, but He cares more about fixing the issue at heart.  He will come and kill them for me, but He doesn't want to have to do that--He would much rather there not be any bugs in the first place.  When the bugs get it, even after they are killed I feel uncomfortable and can't sleep.  I feel itchy and all I can think about is a creepy little stink bug crawling on me.  Jesus would much rather heal me and close the window and stop the bugs from coming in altogether.  That way I don't have to feel gross even weeks after the fact.  That way I don't have to live in fear that it will happen again.

Jesus wants to close the gaps in the windows to make us whole.  But we have to work with Him.  He will point out the problem and do must of the work, but we have to lock it shut.  We have to let Him in and be willing to do what He asks.

Because really, it's for our good anyway.