The old pastor once told me a story.

 

He said, "When I  was a little boy, and naturally I loved critters, I loved to watch ants,

How industrious they were and how busy, always moving, never still

 

"I saw several get drowned in a little stream of water near a little  mudhole. At the bottom of that hillside the path took them over, as they all scampered down. Then I loved to watch ants crawl about in their work. They were so industrious, and they seemed to always be in a big hurry."

 

He said, ''I  lay down on my belly beside that trail, watching as  some more ants picked up the drowned dead ant and hauled him on the journey also. He was not left behind.

"Indeed I watched these little ants going  down this steep little hill, all in a straight row, one right after the other.   They all finally wound down and crossed the bottom of the little valley below with a little trickling stream of water in the middle, and then wound their way up to the top of the other side of the mudhole.

 

"I felt like a big construction worker, a giant watching my little friends as they labored so hard.

 

"They needed help......

 

"I watched as they finally filed one by one in a long row into their little anthill house, a deep hole in the ground.

 

''I noticed that they were making a hard job out of this.''in my 'giant' mind.

"Finally I decided to will help them and I laid a stick down in the path so they could cross the valley to the other side.

 

"I felt so very proud of myself for solving their problem of so many steps. I was the giant man who came to the rescue of a lot of workers.

 

"Now their task would be simple, and they could cut time.

"After all, the (stick) bridge would be so much better. Now the little ants could just go across this new stick bridge to the other side and go right into their house and save themselves a whole  lot of time.

 

 "I tried and tried to point them in the right direction, and you know what?

 

 "No matter how hard I tried to get those ants to take the short cut, they insisted on taking their long journey, down what looked like a mountain and up the other side, instead of taking the new bridge short cut."

 

"Then I wondered why they did not want to take the short cut.

 

The ''tried and true ''was the ants' motto.

"What had been simple to me was another obstacle to the ants, who  had grown accustomed to their journey and just how long it would take. After all, ants do not wear a watch and time means nothing to them!"

 

Finally the postor concluded, "It made  me think of some of these false teachers which skim around all over trying to find a better way to go to heaven than to follow the tried and true way.

 

Ecclesiastes 3

 1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

 2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

 3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;