Caterpillar or Butterfly?

Are you a caterpillar or butterfly? Body or spirit? Good question to ask as you look at the week back and the one ahead.

I was recently on the golf course, playing one of my few rounds of the year. As I walked up to my ball on the green—I get it there eventually—there was a caterpillar slowly ambling along. I was struck by it because I’ve never seen a caterpillar in Northeast Pennsylvania in the fall. I was thinking that it lost its chance to release the beautiful butterfly that waits within that ugly shell.

That made me think afterwards—are we bodies or really spirits just trapped in a human shell that eventually dies and disintegrates? If you believe in nothing else but the human body, and this life is all there is, you are like that caterpillar late in the season just ambling along until you die. That’s a sad thought. On the other hand, if you believe there is a sprit within you let it out now before it’s too late in the season.

I think the essence of what we are is spirit. That spirit is born into a human shell that grows and eventually fades and dies. If we live just according to our bodies it’s impossible for that spirit to shine and add any light to the world. If we fight to let our spirit live by the Sprit we bring some light to a world. Take a look around you—we live in a word that is growing increasingly darker and unfriendly exactly because too many live just by their bodies.

How do you know if you are living by the Spirit? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Those are the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). If that is how you live, or strive to live your life then your spirit is living by the Sprit.

I know that this is sounding like another abstract, holier-than-thou thought. It isn’t. The essence of you and me is spirit, trapped in a decaying shell. Life on this earth is about letting that spirit show and living by the Spirit. Your spirit is a beautiful butterfly if you let it fly. The difference is you—your sprit—never dies like the butterfly. It lives forever. That forever is with God, the ultimate Sprit, if don’t wait to let your spirit fly.

Let your spirit out and let it fly today!