So I’m not really the type of girl who gets scared of bugs and don’t really care if one climbs on me, I’ll just wipe it off. No big deal. However, at training camp, I got a visit from a cicada in the middle of the night. Big deal.
I heard this loud, eerie, flapping sound. It stole my breath away, goose bumps scattered throughout my body. Alarmed, I used my flashlight to see what it was. The bug was right behind me. Gasp. Again, the bug managed to literally take my breath away for the second time… within a 60-second time frame.
I started to flick and hit the bug away but that stubborn “little” sucker wasn’t budging. In fact, it seemed to be getting loader and loader, flapping its wings for longer periods of time. Every move that I made seemed to be some sort of stimulus for the cicada to make a sound.
It was so loud that the sound had gone straight through my ear drums directly to my bones. At this point, I was sweating. Moment by moment my anticipation grew as I anxiously waited to hear that heart-sinking sound again.
I then thought about getting help, but felt too enclosed, isolated, and scared… of a bug. I was hesitant to open my tent because I thought that the cicada was gonna come in and do something terrible to me. Lol like that would ever happen. I obviously was being irrational, to say the least.
Anyway, I got out my earphones and blasted some of my Jesus tunes. I then belted out of my tent and asked one of my squadmates to help me get a bug out of my tent. They gave me a funny, “are you serious” look, but came anyway. I didn’t care what face they gave me, honestly, because that sucker was in-it-for-me.
They couldn’t find it. So I went back to my tent and pulled myself together. I was relaxed and ready to go to bed. Then, right as I lay my head on my pillow I hear it, again.
I dived out of my tent.
And so there I was, on the ground, crumpled in a fetal position, crying over a bug that was trapped in the rain fly of my tent… at training camp. Yep, I’ve definitely had better moments.
It took 4 of us and a headlamp to kill that thing.
At the end of that dilemma, I felt so relieved when my teammates killed it and helped me calm down. We actually laughed and hugged each other in relief that this massive cicada was never gonna see another day again.
I think that if I could describe training camp in one word it would be perspective.
This scenario that took place at training camp can demonstrate how our vision can be skewed when our heart is not on guard. The bug can be like Satan. The enemy is always lurking, trying to whisper lies into our ears, relentlessly feeding off of human fear. He enables us to feel enclosed and terrified like I did when I was in my tent that night.
When the enemy is near we feel as though we’re trapped inside this world where we can’t reach out for any help. We think that no one can understand us and we’re unreachable. The walls (in my case a tent) seem like they’re closing in and are too high to maneuver around.
So, we end up crippled on the ground. We curl up in a fetal position with our face tucked into our knees and try to hide.
But hold up, how are we scared of things like a cicada when the same God who raised their son from the grave lives in us? What does a cicada have on that kinda power? What are we hiding from, there is nothing to hide from.
In John 16:33 Christ’s says “this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world”. There will be tribulations in this side of heaven, that’s not a choice. However, we do choose the view in which we see this world and all that it brings, even like a bug.
We just have to take ourselves out of the world and plug ourselves into the wonders of Jesus. At TC you can easily complain about the food, the showers, the heat, the bugs, the hike, the endless hours of debriefs and sermons and the lice breakout. Yeah, not gonna lie, it’s real easy to get caught up in that.
Sometimes I feel like we humans think we’re trapped in this world of sin, sorrow, and chaos. There are so many wars and disasters going on it seems like God’s presence is so far away.
Good news! It’s not, God is and will always be the same. Everything that we see here or lay our eyes on is made in His image, His detail, His brush stroke. That’s why we need to step back sometimes, grab a sister or brother and get perspective. There is even beauty in a cicada, that cicada…I’m still working on that one with God.
God will always provide a way out of these temptations and shortcomings, even in silly situations like this one. My friends loved me more than the complication at hand and walked me through it with patience, gentleness, and love. We just have to step out in faith, look up from our knees and run to Jesus. That’s it, He makes it so simple for us to reach Him.
He has called us to be bold, nudging us to leave behind our comfort zones for a life of freedom. The path with which we are given is not meant to be one walked alone. God gives us brothers and sisters to walk alongside us. It’s a beautiful thing you see because when you walk alongside the church, God provides more light to the pathway ahead of you.
With this, my friends, “Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes”!!!
