The Fight

Every morning during the warm months for the last 10 years, I’ve been attacked by mosquitoes while sitting at my desk early in the morning in my classroom. Most of the time when I try to swat the blood-thirsty suckers midair, I miss and they quickly scurry through the air in a frantic jittery dance to safety.

But this mosquito this day did not fly off. He came at me boldly, caution thrown to the wind. It was the strangest thing. It kept coming at me, not like most mosquitoes that seem to flit about with an I’ll-get-around-to-biting-you-soon-enough attitude. No, this little bug charged straight at me in a Kamikaze dive-bomb.

And as I swatted and slapped at the thing, it just kept driving in hard and fast, zooming right up the middle, faking left, darting right, diving to my legs, hitting my flank, then up to my chest, then my ear, to my neck as I frantically swooshed my hands around my body, looking like a lunatic swatting and slashing and slapping at the air. But the thing just kept coming. It wouldn’t stop. Over and over and over again.

I couldn’t believe how committed this thing was!

And you know what? I have no idea whether the thing bit me or not. I could never get a good bearing on it. It may have won that little skirmish, or simply flew away, disgusted with the cowardly display of unmanly panic I displayed over a tiny bug. But it doesn’t matter.

That funny little mosquito taught me something important about persistence and goals and success, about life, really (I know, sorta sad when a grown man has to learn something profound from an insect).

Mosquito Boldness 101

You see, this mosquito of uncommon valor, saw what it wanted, and went straight to the source with every intention of hitting its mark. There was no surveying the landscape. No testing the waters. My assailant had no intention of slowly working its way up to the feast, starting slow and building nerve. No, it simply attacked. Driving and driving and driving with impressive determination, persistence and zeal as it pushed harder and harder scrambling to hit its mark.

Do we do that? When we get swatted by life, do we fly back into the game? Do we go up the middle? Do we keep pushing?

What do you want out of life? What kind of marriage do you want? What kind of relationship do you want with your kids? What kind of man or woman do you want to be? What kind of goals do you want to reach? What kind of life do you want to live? Are you doing everything you can do to create it? I mean, really, are doing whatever it takes? Are you committed to victory no matter what? Are you in it for good?

A Modern David and Goliath … sort of

Just my finger nail alone is something like 10 or 15 times larger than that mosquito was. Not to mention my hand. Or my whole 6’4” frame flailing about. That little dude didn’t stand a chance. And yet there it was fighting against a giant for what it wanted. It would have been the same had I gone up against a Tyrannosaurus Rex on steroids with only a sharp itchy stick in my hand!

Is that the kind of determination you have? Do you have that kind of stamina? Is that the drive you have when you pursue your goals? If not, why not?

Are you hurting in life? Has the economy crashed down on top of you? Does it feel like your family is starting to fall apart? Is work overwhelming? Is your business teetering on the edge of collapse? Have you fallen off the wagon again?

Embrace your inner Mosquito

Life can be exciting and adventurous. But it can also be profoundly difficult. Are you ready to take a stab at life like my mosquito took a stab at me? Are you willing to fly hard and push and push and push until the mountain has been moved?

That is, after all, the blessing behind the trial. We are given opportunities in life to test our stamina, to build our backbone, to rise to the occasion and fly like that mosquito did with total abandon toward its mark. That is the test, the dividing point between those who are crushed by life and those who become something grander than they ever imagined they could be.

Sometimes our problems loom very large before us. But if a little mosquito can muster the nerve and wherewithal to attack a giant, I trust that you can attack the giants in your life too!

So let your inner mosquito free and go at it!

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