Prodigal: I want you to meet my friend Mr. Monkey.
Me: I was just reading about a story about monkey’s so maybe you could tell me what you think about the story.
Prodigal: Sure sounds great!
Anne Graham Lotz in her book The Magnificent Obsession shares this story.
When God had called Abraham to leave behind Ur of the Chaldeans, along with everything else, and follow Him in a life of obedient faith, Lot also had made the initial choice to leave. He had left behind his own familiar territory and people and father’s house. In fact, he is described in the New Testament three times as a righteous man who must have established a relationship with God and to some degree desired God’s blessing in his own life.
But Lot reminded me of a monkey…
I’ve been told that if you want to catch a monkey, the first step to take is to go to the jungle where they live. Take a jar that is shaped like a carafe, with an opening that is smaller than the rest of the container. Place a banana inside the jar, bury it in the ground so that the mouth of the jar is even with the surface of the ground, then quickly hide in the bushes nearby and watch what happens.
Sources say that soon a monkey will come happily along and stop as he carefully sniffs the air. His sniffer will lead him to the hole in the ground, which is actually the top of your jar. He will begin to get excited when he realized there is a banana down in that hole!
Not to be denied, he will reach down into the jar, swish his humanlike hand around the bottom of it, find the banana, grasp it with his greedy little paw…and you’ve caught yourself a monkey! The monkey’s fist around that banana is too large now to come out of the small mouth of the jar, and yet he won’t let go of the banana!
The monkey may throw up his hind legs and screech pitifully into the air as if to say, “I’m a monkey! I was meant to swing through trees! I want to be free!” But…he won’t let go of his banana. So he remains trapped.
Lot appeared to be a “monkey” who clutched several “bananas” in his hand, refusing to let them go. In the end, they cost him not only the magnificent obsession but also his own family, friends, and future. His life’s story is a very solemn one that challenges me to let go of anything and everything, especially the shallowness, selfishness, and sinfulness in my life that hinders me from receiving and experiencing all that God wants me to have.
Lot’s live contrasts sharply with that of Abraham, who let everything go with dramatically different results. As we compare Abraham and Lot, I wonder…
Fellow monkey, what’s the banana you’re clutching in your hand that is keeping you from embracing the magnificent obsession? You can say how desperately you want to know God, how earnestly you long to receive all that He has for you, how committed you are to making Him known to the world around you..but you won’t let go of your banana. What is it?
Proverbs 21:2
Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart.
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
