[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"\u002Farticles\u002Fdoing-your-part-in-the-super-organism":3,"\u002Farticles\u002Fdoing-your-part-in-the-super-organism-surround":64},{"id":4,"title":5,"author":6,"bibleBooks":8,"body":12,"columnName":47,"date":48,"description":18,"extension":49,"image":50,"meta":51,"minRead":52,"navigation":53,"path":54,"postType":55,"publication":56,"publicationUrl":50,"seo":57,"stem":58,"topics":59,"__hash__":63},"blog\u002Farticles\u002Fdoing-your-part-in-the-super-organism.md","Doing Your Part in the 'Super-Organism'",{"name":7},"Dave Faust",[9,10,11],"Proverbs","Psalms","Matthew",{"type":13,"value":14,"toc":43},"minimark",[15,19,22,25,28,31,34,37,40],[16,17,18],"p",{},"Do you find it amusing when the book of Proverbs refers to a lazy person as a \"sluggard\"? The very word itself sounds slow and dull—sluggish.",[16,20,21],{},"Solomon describes the sluggard's lazy ways with a touch of sarcasm and humor. If you hire a sluggard to work for you, the experience will be as bitter as the taste of vinegar in your mouth, or like smoke that burns your eyes (Proverbs 10:26). A sluggard is so lazy he can barely find the energy to scoop food from the table to his mouth (19:24). He uses lame, far-fetched excuses to justify his refusal to work; after all, there might be a lion outside or he might be murdered if he ventures onto the streets (22:13). Sleepy and sluggish, a lazy man turns on his bed like a door turns on its hinges (26:14).",[16,23,24],{},"Who wants to be considered a slug? How much better to be compared to an ant! \"Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!\" (Proverbs 6:6). An ant is tiny but it's industrious, hard-working, and self-motivated. \"It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest\" (Proverbs 6:7, 8).",[16,26,27],{},"There are more than 9,000 known species of ants. Despite the best efforts of exterminators and ant-eaters, ants exist on almost every land mass on earth. And they don't exist alone; they live and work together. Entomologists refer to ant colonies as \"super-organisms\" because hundreds of the insects seem to operate as a single entity with a specialized division of labor. An individual ant cannot survive independently very long without the rest of the group. The members of an ant colony are generally divided into queens, workers, and males. The males exist only to mate, while the female workers care for the young, gather food, and guard the colony.",[16,29,30],{},"Simply put, ants survive and thrive because they help each other. They are industrious, but not for themselves alone. They work for the sake of the whole colony. Recently I heard a garden expert explain how in a heavy rain, worker ants have been observed using their bodies as rafts to haul the queen to safety.",[16,32,33],{},"If anything ought to be described as a \"super-organism,\" it's the body of Christ. The church survives and thrives when all its members help each other, do their share of the work, and when necessary carry each other along.",[16,35,36],{},"David wrote in the Psalms, \"Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens\" (Psalm 68:19). God is the original burden-bearer, so it only makes sense that his people should be burden-bearers too.",[16,38,39],{},"The Lord intends for his church to be an interdependent, caring community of mutual burden-bearers. When we carry each other's burdens, we follow in the footsteps of Jesus who said, \"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest\" (Matthew 11:28).",[16,41,42],{},"There's nothing sluggish about that.",{"title":44,"searchDepth":45,"depth":45,"links":46},"",2,[],"First Look","2006-08-06","md",null,{},3,true,"\u002Farticles\u002Fdoing-your-part-in-the-super-organism","column","The Lookout",{"title":5,"description":18},"articles\u002Fdoing-your-part-in-the-super-organism",[60,61,62],"Biblical Theology","Church Leadership","Christian Unity","H0F-ZNF2tMkdBvG4tuRBtbioREuN_YpXTY7y_3ew6vg",[65,70],{"title":66,"path":67,"stem":68,"description":69,"children":-1},"Doing Things the Hard Way","\u002Farticles\u002Fdoing-things-the-hard-way","articles\u002Fdoing-things-the-hard-way","A preacher friend teased me when he found out that I sometimes type my sermon notes on an old electric typewriter instead of using a computer.",{"title":71,"path":72,"stem":73,"description":74,"children":-1},"Don't Be Homeblind","\u002Farticles\u002Fdon-t-be-homeblind","articles\u002Fdon-t-be-homeblind","On a study tour in England earlier this year, my wife and I were riding on a bus through the countryside on a sunny afternoon. It was early spring, and sheep grazed peacefully on pastures that looked like they had been painted emerald green by the hand of God. Daffodils bloomed beside the neatly trimmed hedges lining the roads."]