The Lady Bug Story

When I was in college, I was a member of Intervarsity (IV) Christian Fellowship, a college ministry designed to win and disciple the young people in America’s many colleges.  After our spring semesters, we would attend an annual retreat in Panama City, Florida, joining many other students from universities all over the world.  Our retreat center was across the street from the beach and in between our services and classes, some of us would visit the shores of this breathtaking beach.      

            One morning after worship, I was walking along the white sand beach, praying about my many struggles, hopes and dreams.  It had been a very rough semester for me both personally and academically.   The beach was deserted except for a few of us IV students who were benefiting from having quiet time.  Sapphire blue water danced quietly along the beach’s shoreline and stretched out unashamedly into a distant cerulean blue vastness.

            "Look,” said a fellow student who had walked up on me, catching me off guard, “a lady bug.”

            I glanced at the student and then down at the black and red ladybug, which was stuck in the sand and kicking stubbornly on its back.   Try as it might to get out of its situation, it was without hope.

            My fellow student turned the bug over, but the bug did not crawl away.  Before I knew what I was doing, I was picking up a wooden twig and gently coaxing the ladybug into climbing onto it.  Once the ladybug was on my twig, I examined my new little friend and then, something amazing happen.  It was if God pulled back a curtain and allowed me to peek into another dimension of knowledge.

            I had suspected that the little ladybug was injured, but I had been wrong.  Suddenly, it was clear to me that it was not injured, but hindered.  It needed shelter from the dirt and waves because its little legs were weighed down with wet & heavy sand.  The weight had impaired its movement, causing it to struggle hopelessly.   Patiently, I held the twig and watched the ladybug as it cleaned the sand from its legs.  A place of refuge was all that was needed for it; a safe place to rest, dry and be restored. In my spirit, I could hear God responding to the prayers that I had been praying just moments before.  He was extending a dry secure branch.  I was the little ladybug stuck and kicking stubbornly in my inadequate attempts to set things right in my life.  Both my sin and the sin of others had impaired my movement.  I was weighed down by the mess of sin, but God was cleaning and restoring me.

 I am Liberated Lin, a woman who was liberated from the domination of sin and the hopelessness that it guaranteed me.  I am Liberated Lin, a daughter, woman, wife, mother, student, teacher, writer and evangelist, who has been made free by Jesus. I have made up my mind and determined in my heart that I will not go back into bondage. 

Have you?

The Bible says in Romans 10:9 and 13, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." 

I was the little ladybug stuck and kicking stubbornly in my inadequate attempts to set things right in my life.