When we lived in Baytown Texas, spring was the time of year when termites swarmed looking for a place to form a new colony. Formosan termites head out about dusk this time of year and usually swarm around light sources (outdoor porch lights, etc). There can be thousands of the creepy little critters that gather and crawl all along the outside of a building looking for a way in. Usually they die in the attempt so you’re left with a bunch of little termite bodies littering the ground around doors and windows. Worse, if they find a way in (and they will), you’ll find dozens of dead termites on the floors and countertops in your house, usually near windows and doors. Eww.

As soon as we saw a single termite flying around, my wife and I immediately turned off all the lights and shut the blinds. See, we know that when they detect some light, they’ll get all their little termite buddies and form a termite cloud around it. We didn’t want them to find a way in. We knew they can squeeze through a space as thin as a dime so we tried to thwart their invasion as much as we could.

Is there a spiritual lesson to this? You bet your sweet termite swarm there is. See, everyday we’re “swarmed” by opportunities to sin. It’s all around us: the temptation to cut corners at work, the enticement to let our eyes linger on someone’s body, the lure to join in with the crowd in questionable activities. The list goes on and on and it’s a constant struggle.

Temptation usually comes on strongest during our weakest moments. When we’re at the limit of our patience, we may lash out at someone in red-hot anger. When we’re particularly lonely, we may reach out for an illicit relationship. When we’re offended by someone, we might spread some critical gossip about them. Like the termite swarm, sin doesn’t come in where there are walls and barriers, it comes in the little crevices and cracks in our character. Then when it’s in, it leaves a mess in its wake.

There’s a better way. Seal up the cracks; block the crevices. Don’t allow your weaknesses to rule your character, instead, work to keep temptation from overcoming you by learning from your mistakes and building up your defenses. It only takes a little sin to do a lot of bad.

As for future termite swarms, we’ll keep the lights off for a few nights and keep the doors and windows tightly shut against the nightly swarm to keep the infestation down to minimum. I hope we’ll do the same with sin.

“Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts” (Rom 13:13-14).