Once during my working years, I found a little plastic sign to put on my desk. It read, "Lord, help me not to be so crabby, and help me put up with the crabs around me." I thought the sign was hilarious, especially as I was boss and was asking the Lord to help me not to be crabby! But my co-workers didn't appreciate it one bit! For their sakes, I soon got rid of the offensive sign!
They tell me that if you put a lot of crabs in a bucket, they will not get out. Why? What keeps them from climbing up the side of the bucket and falling out? There's a simple answer. When one crab gets to the top and nearly out of the bucket, another crab reaches up and pulls him back down in his own endeavor to get out!
Perhaps you're wondering what that has to do with spiritual crabs! Many times when we try to draw closer to the Lord, others will try to discourage us in our endeavors. "Don't go overboard," they'll urge. "It's not necessary to spend so much time in prayer," they'll claim. Or "Why spend so much time reading the Bible?" The other "crabs" will come up with all kinds of excuses to drag us back down in our spiritual life. Perhaps we should say they'll try to drag us back down to THEIR spiritual level. Because they don't enjoy spiritual freedom, they don't want us to get ahead of them and make spiritual progress, either
And of course there are those "crabs" who find fault with the preacher, with the services, with their Christian friends and everything else. There are "crabs" of all kinds in every part of the church.
Let's determine we are not going to give in to the pressures and demands of others. Don't let them drag us back into the bucket. Instead, let's climb out of the realm of the "crabs" and into the full sunlight of God's love.
Preacher's Kid
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