Breached

One thing that we have gotten used to over here (some of us more than others) are insects. In fact, most of us have actually eaten a variety of the little guys. Just the other day I was grabbing a quick plate of noodles on the street. When I was halfway through my meal I noticed a small cockroach peaking out from between the toothpick dispenser and the roll of toilet paper (used in place of napkins in many locations). Without skipping a beat, I used my left hand to flick him off the table and continued eating. One of the most common creatures with which we have learned to co-habitate is the ant. During many meals we are brushing them off of our table while we eat. Ants don't even register a blip on our radar anymore....for the most part.
They do raise a bit of concern, though, when I notice a 4 lane interstate highway of them all leading to a particular location. This means that one has found a stash of candy, a dead bug or a crumb that was missed. He then radios in to headquarters and gives all of his friends the coordinates. Many times the situation culminates in a conversation such as:
Me: "Are you sure you don't have any old candy in there (pointing toward a stack of books, clothes...etc)?"
Child X: "Yep".
Me: "Really? They aren't usually attracted to the pages of a book or a pencil case."
Child X: "I'm sure."
Me: "Well I'll take a look just to make sure."
32 seconds later
Child X: "Oh yeah, I was wondering where that open bag of Skittles went".
Me: "Gosh, I am so shocked to find that (Dripping with sarcasm).

After the amazing discovery, the ant party is disrupted by a few shots of Raid and a broom.

However, this was not the case a couple days ago. It started out similarly. I noticed a trail of ants entering our kitchen from the outside door. Actually 2 trails. One led to the trash and I quickly took care of that problem. The other went the other direction. I followed the 4 lane highway as it curved under our ant cabinet (an ant cabinet is a glass and aluminum pantry that sits on 4 legs - see picture. Each leg usually sits in a small dish of water or some sort of detergent. This usually keeps the ants away. We basically keep all food that is not refrigerated inside the ant cabinet. This ensures that we aren't sharing our food with a million little friends). I fully expected to see the trail exit from the other side of the cabinet and head toward our dog's food bowl. When I realized that the trail terminated under our cabinet, my first thought was: we've been breached!

I know that may sound a bit dramatic but the ants had gained access to where we keep much of our food. Flour, sugar, cereal, chips, crackers, any of Carolyn's amazing baked goods, candy...etc. They were all now at risk. Immediately I began to assess the situation. How far did they get? What had been overtaken and ruined? I systematically pulled everything off the shelves starting at the bottom and moving up. On the bottom shelf and the 3rd shelf up there were large collections of ants but mostly isolated to a bag of sugar and a bag Blow Pops (brought to us from the US...bummer). I cleaned out all of the ants and put the food back but the most important step would be to figure out what caused the breach. This needed to be done otherwise they would be back again. After careful observation, I noticed that the cabinet had been pushed back less than an inch but that had allowed the leg of the cabinet to just barely touch the edge of the small dish. This provided an access point for the vermin to get in. I repositioned the cabinet and made sure that there was still enough detergent to discourage the little guys from hosting another free party hosted by us.

Not to overspiritualize this event but it did cause me to think of our lives as Christians. We can so easily move ever so slightly off of the path we are on but that movement allows Satan to breach our defenses. I have found that when I am not spending consistent time in the Word and analyzing the state of my defenses, I am more vulnerable to being "breached". To me, this story illustrated, in a sort of funny way, my need to be more diligent in protecting myself from the attacks of the Enemy.

"But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do." 1 Peter 1:15