It's Hard to Herd Caterpillars

[Gary Petty] When I was a child, our town had a caterpillar infestation. They were all over the place. I can remember – I have memories of them climbing up the walls of our garage outside. When you would drive down the road, you could hear them crunching under your tires. Well, sort of the way my personality is, and as a child I decided it was important that I create order out of this chaos. So I went out in the backyard and I gathered up a whole pile of caterpillars, and I started to line them up two by two to get them to march. Well, I could get about maybe half a dozen, and then suddenly they'd start scattering all over the place. And I spent a lot of time trying to get caterpillars to march. And only after a lot of frustration did I realize you can't do that.

You know, how many people – how many times in our lives, in order to achieve personal security and peace, we decide we just have to control everything. We've just got to get everybody and everything to march the way we want things to be, the way we want people to march. Of course, if you try to do that, you simply create more chaos.

You know, I'm reminded of what Solomon wrote in Proverbs when he said, "A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps" (Proverbs 16:9). You know, God has a great purpose for our lives, and He expects us to plan, and work hard, but the truth is that in the chaos of this life, it's only our faith in God that gives us true security and true peace. Otherwise, you're just trying to control everything – you're just trying to herd caterpillars. Take it from me. You can't get caterpillars to march.

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