Piloting Faith: How to catch a monkey...

A Word for the Day...

Farmers and hunters in third-world countries have been capturing monkeys for centuries. If you want to catch a monkey, you have to trap it.

Here’s how: A farmer or hunter will take a gourd, or they’ll cut a small hole into a termite mound if they’re in Africa. The small hole they cut will be just big enough for the monkey to fit their hand through. Inside the gourd or the jar, they’ll put nuts or sweets, something the monkey craves.

Then they wait. Sooner or later a monkey will come by and smell the nuts, and they’ll want it. They’ll put their hand through the hole, grab a fistful of nuts, and then they’ll try to pull their hand back out. But they can’t. The hole is small enough to put their empty hand through, but not big enough for a hand clutching a fistful of nuts. They’re stuck.

Now, at this point, the monkey should realize, “Hey, I’m stuck, drop the nuts.” But they don’t. They want the nuts. They don’t want to surrender the nuts. So they pull and pull and pull, refusing to drop the nuts, and the hunter or farmer comes up behind and catches them.

If they just surrendered what they were holding on to, they could have been free.

I wonder what we are each holding onto that is keeping us trapped? Of course, I also work with companies and churches who should ask the same thing.

- Rev. Cameron Trimble, author of Piloting Church: Helping Your Congregation Take Flight

PS - Thanks to my colleague, Rev. David Reed-Brown, for reminding me of this story.

Prayer for the Week

Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every one who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

- Excerpt from St Patrick's Breastplate