FROM THE PULPIT: WE CAN TAKE A LESSON FROM THE HOUSEFLY

I sat down at the kitchen table to read the newspaper on a blissful Sunday afternoon. Despite my best intentions to relax, I was distracted by an annoying sound.

Bzzzzzzz. Tap, tap.

I looked up from the newspaper to see a common housefly, desperately attempting to fly through the clear glass window pane of the sliding patio door.

Bzzzzzzz. Tap, tap.

The life span for a housefly is incredibly brief, and here was one fly rapidly burning out the remaining energy of its short life.

The whining wings tell the poignant story of the fly's struggle: Try, try again. Keep on keeping on. All you need is a little willpower.

The fly's struggle is a little like some of my actions. I've always been told to persevere. Winners never quit and quitters never win. Right?

And yet those who continue doing what they've been doing will only continue getting what they've been getting. Doing more of the same hoping for a different outcome is the definition of insanity. And watching the fly's futile attempts to break through the glass was driving me crazy.

Bzzzzzzz. Tap, tap, tap, tap.

The frenzied efforts now intensified.

The fly resorted to the good old American logic of "try harder." When faced with difficult situations, we believe the only way to succeed is through raw effort and determination. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Right?

Bzzzzzzz. Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap. Bzzzzzzz, tap, tap, tap, tap.

Ironically, the struggle is part of the trap. How did this fly get so locked in on the idea that this particular route, and this determined effort, offer the most promise for freedom and success?

What logic is there in continuing the same approach hoping for a different outcome, even if that same approach is intensified?

If that fly would but turn around, it would see that the front door is still ajar. That's how it likely came in the house. Three seconds of flying time in a different direction and it would reach freedom in the outside world it so desperately seeks.

With only a fraction of the effort now being wasted, it would be free of this self-imposed trap. Without change, this fly was destined to end up on the window sill, a dried out remain of its former potential to be mindlessly vacuumed up and forgotten.

And what's really sad is how I see so many of my friends and acquaintances looking for success by repeating the same futile efforts, through the same methods, with the same mentality, with the same priorities, believing, somehow, even miraculously, they will achieve the different results they seek.

Bzzzzzzz. Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.

The Apostle Paul said in Ephesians 4:17, "You must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking." (NIV)

For Paul, the path to a better life began in the way we think. The place to start living as a Christian is to recognize we must think differently than the world thinks. We must operate from a different agenda, with different priorities, in a manner that is often contrary to the world's mindset.

"Futility," as Paul uses it, means "void of purpose or appropriateness." The J. B. Phillips translation of this verse reads, "Do not live as the gentiles live. For they live blindfolded in a world of illusion."

How many of us truly live with a sense of purpose, let alone a sense of following God's purpose? Most of us will continue to drift through life, swept along the current of the world's agenda: Eat, sleep, go to work, pay the bills.

If that mindset becomes our purpose, is it any wonder things aren't working out? What direction are you flying? Is there a problem or situation that has you beating your head against the wall?

Sometimes all we need to do is turn around and see things through God's purposes. Turning from the world, we see the freedom God offers in Jesus Christ. Jesus offers a new life, a new way of living with purpose, a new way of dealing with problems.