Welcome to our online youth lesson for this week. To catch up on previous lessons, click here.
We’ll kick off this week’s lesson with a song, “River of Life” by Mac Powell:
The past few weeks, we have gone through a mini-series of lessons focused on getting “unstuck” from situations that can hold us back, drag us away from God and toward destruction. Topics like depression and anxiety are closely tied to this downward spiral for many of us. It may be helpful for you to quickly review the lessons “Learning to let go” and “Do you want to get well?” before jumping into this week’s session.
Today, we the goal is to talk about some red flags and things that can sneak into our lives that spark such a downward spiral. Learning to identify our triggers, the things that cause us to struggle, can help us proactively avoid additional stressors and layers of depression as we try to not only climb out of the pit we can feel ourselves in, but avoid falling back into those spiritual potholes. First, an interesting video:
Wild, right? Who knew these parasitic fungi actually existed? Obviously, not the ants that are infected. Imagine, for a moment, taking the ant’s perspective. It is going about its day, doing the important work of the colony, when an unseen spore from the cordyceps fungi lands and takes root. It slowly takes over the ant’s brain and muscles — and eventually its whole body — until all that’s left is a shell of what the ant used to be.
A grim metaphor for depression and/or anxiety, huh? And yet, it can work in similar ways. The devil is always looking for a way to squeeze himself into our lives, severing us from our walk from God, paralyzing us from doing God’s work and ultimately leaving behind only a shell of what God hopes for our lives.
Consider the following verse pulled from the bigger parable involving a sower and seeds, focused on the phrase found at Mark 4:19 (NIV):
But the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.
The “worries” related directly to the feelings of anxiety that can trap us, paralyze us. The “deceitfulness of wealth” speaks to our human-focused inclinations toward greed and “desires for other things” can be tied closely to personal gratification. Lacking those things can lead to feelings of low-self worth and depression, almost like a slow process similar to how the cordyceps slowly takes over the ant until it can no longer function independently.
Again, we’ve talked in the previous two parts of this series on the importance of letting go, of mindfully wanting to get well and allowing God to work in our lives by giving Him control.
But what can we do to avoid being “infected” by Satan’s spores of destruction? Cordyceps and the ants it feasts on is typically found in the Amazon or other jungle-like areas. Ants in Pennsylvania typically don’t have to worry about this sort of phenomenon. While ants don’t typically have a choice of where they live — it isn’t like healthy ants can board a plane from the Amazon to Middleburg where they avoid the cordyceps — we can make a mindful choice to avoid places where Satan’s influences aren’t as overwhelming.
Consider what is suggested in 1 Peter 2:10-11 (NIV):
Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 11 Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.
And Titus 2:11-12 (NIV):
For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. 12 It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.
And 1 John 2:15-16 (NIV):
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. 16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.
What are some areas you are ripe with Satan’s “spores” in your life? What are some of the worldly desires mentioned in these three verses in which you need to avoid so you don’t go down a path that can lead to destruction?
Personally, I (John) see so many subliminal messages hiding (like those deadly cordyceps spores) in the movies we watch, the songs we hear, the books we read and especially on various social media platforms where people — more than ever before — compare themselves to what usually is an unrealistic set of standards developed by “society” and the world which run counter to what God suggests.
Can we watch a movie with inappropriate things in it or scroll through various social media feeds and mindfully avoid contracting a lethal dose of “Satan’s spores” that cloud our mind and take over our lives? Of course. However, the more “normal” we allow those distractions and influences to be in our lives, the more they can numb the senses God gave us toward the red flags of worldly dangers, and the easier it is for us to lose sight of what is truly important.
Consider the warning provided via these verses found in 1 Peter 5:8-9 (NIV):
Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
Being alert. Being mindfully sober when dealing with negative distractions, temptations and influences. Verse nine then provides a powerful tool God gives us in fighting the life-altering drain of “Satan’s spores” if we come in contact with them. He gives us the ability to resist the devil in God’s name, and regain control over our lives as we turn them over to him. That model is repeated more clearly in James 4:7-8 (NIV):
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you.
Imagine if these doomed ants, overwhelmed by the effects of the cordyceps, had the ability to realize their situation and cast those spores out of their minds and muscles while filling those voids with something more powerful and positive? We have that ability, but it is only through God.
What are your thoughts on this subject? How do you avoid the negative influences that swirl around you regularly? How do you — or others you know — stand up to Satan, cast him out and allow God to take over again? Share your comments with us via email at zaktansky@gmail.com
