fear – Mark Spruill

Spider Fright

Sep 092021

The spiders have taken over. Last year, we told the exterminator not to kill the spider that had made a home just off our front porch. We liked to see the web and enjoy watching nature do its thing. Well, nature did its thing. A lot. This year we have a zillion garden spiders all around our house. And it’s fascinating.

If I am honest, I have to admit that just like most everyone else, the spiders scare me. They are small monsters hanging in a sticky web, ready to pounce. I suppose I could take a big stick and knock them into oblivion. Or spray them with some powerful bug spray and watch them shrivel and die. But I just can’t do that. I respect them too much.

When I see their web, I marvel at the design and wonder at the accomplishment. How did this spider get a single strong strand of fiber to stretch from the peak of my roof to one corner of his front porch pearch. Another strand stretches all the way to a single leaf of a green bean plant, growing in my front yard. As I picked the green beans a few days ago, I touched it, and was amazed at the strength I could feel in that tiny taught strand.

So, when I walked out the front door on my way to work this morning, I said hello to the spiders, and with a little fear and trepidation, quickly ducked around their webs and headed for the car. As I drove away, I contemplated the odd combination of fear, adoration, and wonder that these spiders inspired. It occured to me that it could be a small example of what it means to fear the Lord, which the Bible says, is the beginning of wisdom. And if the “fear of the Lord” is where wisdom starts, maybe respecting a spider is not a bad way to get started.

Proverbs 9:10

Don’t Change My Misery

Consider This No Responses »

Mar 242019

Two dogs are more trouble than one. They fight, they vie for attention, they eat twice the food and make double the mess. You must take two walks or take one walk with both hands holding tight to two leashes, which promptly get tangled and twisted. It’s weird. I now have two big dogs and double the trouble, but if you asked me if I was willing to give one away, I would say no.

Attachment is a strange thing. We can get attached to dogs, to people, to places and things. We can get attached to habits and ideas and perhaps, even our miseries. We get comfortable. We get used to life a certain way and we fear any changes because we prefer what we know to the unknown. Maybe I won’t like that new house. What if the new job is even more miserable than the one I have? It’s the opposite of the “grass is always greener” syndrome. It’s the “what if the other grass is even more weedy” syndrome.

There are some people that are always looking for a change because they think it will make life better. There are other people that are always trying to keep things the same, because they are afraid the change might make things worse. I doubt that either extreme is good. I probably lean toward the latter rather than the former. The right attitude is probably somewhere in the middle. Unfortunately, moving to the middle requires either more, or less change, depending on which side you are on. And for either of the extremes, that’s a difficult move.