How to Catch a Monkey
Monkeys are nimble, quick, very alert to motion, and most sensitive to smells. They are excellent climbers and can swing from limb to limb with the greatest of ease. This makes them hard to catch by normal means. But sources tell me there is a simple way that will work most of the time. First you find a jar with an opening just wide enough to allow a monkey to get his open hand through. Then place a banana in the jar. Bury the jar and with the opening just level with the ground. The monkey with his keen sense of smell will find the jar and with delight will place his hand inside the jar, holding the banana in his clenched fist. But alas! He cannot get his fist out of the jar without releasing his prize. So he clings to the banana and is so entrapped that he is easily secured. So, you might try that the next time you try to catch a monkey.
The prophet Isaiah, preaching to the people of Judah, warned them of God’s judgment if they did not release their hold on their idols and godless lifestyle. “Woe to the obstinate people, declares the Lord, to those who carry out plans that are not mine, forming an alliance, but not by my spirit, heaping sin upon sin.” Isaiah 30:1
I have paraphrased and personalized this verse as follows: (God says) hard times and shame will come to those who are stubborn, hard-headed, and strong willed. If you reject my plans, doing what you want to do, thinking you have a better idea, you are headed for trouble. If you reject my counsel, thinking, “I don’t need God,” and join with those who think like that, you just heap up a mountain of sin which will only bring shame to your name. Then I reflect on this in prayer; “Lord, there are times when I don’t listen to you, when I want to do my thing. Please forgive me and teach me that my greatest joy and satisfaction in life comes when I recognize your Lordship and seek to follow your counsel. Help me to always remember that to fear You is the beginning of wisdom. Amen.”
I’m afraid there are times when I am like that monkey, refusing to turn loose of that which I prize and Satan captures me. It may be something as simple as an attitude. “I have a right to ______. {You fill in the blank.} “I want to win,” be it an argument, a game, the applause of man, building an empire, etc. It may be anything that keeps you from a life goal of knowing God in all His fullness. It can be lonely. Ann Graham Lotz describes it this way. “The journey of obedient faith has for me at times been a long walk in the same direction with nobody.” But Michael Card says, “It’s hard to imagine the freedom we find from the things we leave behind.”
Isaiah had hard things to say to his people in warning them of judgment to come. Yet he could not leave them without hope. In Isa.30:30 he says, “Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; He rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!”
May we all learn to trust Him, turn loose of that which traps us, and run with patience the race set before us. [email protected].
Jim served as Director of the Baptist Student Union at Southwestern Oklahoma State for 37 years. After retiring he served as chaplain of the Custer County Jail for twenty years, and a local truck stop as well.
He writes a religious column for two local newspapers. He currently lives in Weatherford.
