{"id":1362,"date":"2011-10-27T09:28:00","date_gmt":"2011-10-27T13:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/?p=1362"},"modified":"2011-11-08T20:04:51","modified_gmt":"2011-11-09T01:04:51","slug":"mounds-of-trouble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/?p=1362","title":{"rendered":"Mounds of Trouble"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fire ants are a part of life in Georgia.\u00a0 If you have never experienced them, then all you are missing is a dirt mound full of the meanest, biten’est, hurten’est, most aggressive little insects that ever lived! \u00a0And unfortunately, they are all over Georgia.\u00a0 You find them just about anywhere there is dirt.\u00a0 They build huge mounds for their nest, which they defend ferociously, as anybody who has ever stepped on one can confirm.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A fire ant hill in our yard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sam and I were walking down the sidewalk this past Sunday and just as we got to the end, spotted a fire ant hill.\u00a0 “Can I step on it?” Sam asked.\u00a0 “Sure.”\u00a0 I said.\u00a0 It was not my usual response.\u00a0 I usually prefer not to stir them up.\u00a0 Keeping them all happy and content in the mound makes it much easier to poison them all later.\u00a0 But these ants at the end of the trail were in “no man’s land,” so we both stirred them up and watched them come pouring out of the mound looking for something to attack.<\/p>\n

As we walked away from the havoc we had created, I wondered why it was so fun to stir up an ant nest.\u00a0 Step on them.\u00a0 Kick the nest.\u00a0 Poke a stick in the mound.\u00a0 Watch them pour out to defend the nest.\u00a0 Why stir up trouble?\u00a0 Was it malice?\u00a0 Was it revenge for all the past ant bites?\u00a0 Did it stem from a twisted desire to make life more difficult for another living creature?\u00a0 Or perhaps it was a desire to show myself superior to the poor little ants?\u00a0\u00a0It could be some of all of these reasons, but\u00a0I think for me, it’s\u00a0mostly just\u00a0curiosity.\u00a0 One of the first questions that pops in my mind when I see the ant mound is, “Is anybody home?”\u00a0 Give the mound a little kick; see the inhabitants come swarming out.\u00a0 “Yep.\u00a0 They’re in there.”<\/p>\n

If you think about it, the whole ant mound incident is a little like the story of Job.\u00a0 Job was all happy in his big wealthy ant hill when along comes Satan asking God if he can kick the mound. \u00a0God gives him the OK, so he kicks it.\u00a0 Stirs it up.\u00a0 Pokes a big stick right in the middle of Job’s mound of comfort zone.\u00a0 Now Satan and God stand back to watch what comes pouring out.<\/p>\n

Satan expects a swarm of resentment and hate to spill out all over everything. \u00a0“Curse God and die” is the stinging bite he assumes to elicit. What he gets instead is “Though He slay me, yet will I\u00a0trust\u00a0Him.”\u00a0 Not at all what\u00a0Satan expected to be in the Job mound.\u00a0 But\u00a0God wasn’t surprised.\u00a0 He knew exactly what lived inside the center of that Job mound, and precisely what would happen when Satan stirred it.<\/p>\n

God knows what’s in every mound.\u00a0 Satan, on the other hand, does not.\u00a0 And unfortunately, he is still in the business of stirring up trouble wherever he can.\u00a0 We build our little “me” mounds and ready ourselves to defend them ferociously.\u00a0 Satan comes along and kicks the dirt around so he can watch what happens.\u00a0 He wants to know what’s inside.\u00a0 The real question is,\u00a0if\u00a0Satan comes\u00a0messing with\u00a0the “me” mound, what comes pouring out?\u00a0 Stinging, biting hurt?\u00a0 Or\u00a0the Holy Spirit of God?\u00a0\u00a0When he kicks the nest, checking to see\u00a0if anybody is home, what will he find?\u00a0 Will he cackle with delight at the chaos his\u00a0hardship caused?\u00a0 Or will God smile\u00a0while a defeated\u00a0Satan\u00a0backs away mumbling,\u00a0 “Yep, HE’s in there.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And He said, “What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. \u00a0“For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, “thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.\u00a0 \u00a0“All these evil things come from within and defile a man.”<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 – Mark 7:20-23<\/em><\/p>\n

But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.\u00a0 \u00a0Therefore, brethren, we are debtors–not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.\u00a0 \u00a0For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. \u00a0For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 – Romans 8:11-14<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fire ants are a part of life in Georgia.\u00a0 If you have never experienced them, then all you are missing is a dirt mound full of the meanest, biten’est, hurten’est, most aggressive little insects that ever lived! \u00a0And unfortunately, they are all over Georgia.\u00a0 You find them just about anywhere there is dirt.\u00a0 They build […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[187,190,188,52,189],"class_list":["post-1362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-consider","category-misc","tag-ants","tag-responses","tag-spirit-filled","tag-trials","tag-troubles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1362"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1384,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1362\/revisions\/1384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}