{"id":37821,"date":"2020-11-20T14:04:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-20T14:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/what-ants-taught-becky-pippert\/"},"modified":"2020-11-20T14:04:00","modified_gmt":"2020-11-20T14:04:00","slug":"what-ants-taught-becky-pippert","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/what-ants-taught-becky-pippert\/","title":{"rendered":"What Ants Taught Becky Pippert"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When Rebecca Pippert was an agnostic, she had one question she continually wrestled with: How can finite limited human beings ever claim to know God? How do they know they are not being deceived?<\/p>\n\n<p>Pippert writes:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>One sunny day I was stretched out on the lawn &hellip; when I noticed that some ants were busy building a mound. I began to redirect their steps with twigs and leaves. But they simply bounced off and started a new ant mound. I thought, <em>This is like being God! I am redirecting their steps, and they don&rsquo;t even realize it!<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\n\n<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>At one point, two ants crawled onto my hands and I thought, <em>Wouldn&rsquo;t it be funny if one ant turned to the others and said, &ldquo;Do you believe in Becky? Do you believe Becky really exists?&rdquo; I imagine the other ant answering, &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t be ridiculous! Becky is a myth, a fairy tale!&rdquo; How comical<\/em>, I thought&#8211;<em>the hubris of that ant declaring that I don&rsquo;t exist, when I could easily blow it off my hand. But what if the other ant said, &ldquo;Oh, I believe that Becky exists!&rdquo; How would they resolve it? How could they know that I am real? <\/em>I thought. What would I have to do to reveal to them who I am?<\/p>\n<p>\n\n<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Suddenly I realized: the only way to reveal who I am, in a way that they could understand, would be to become an ant myself. I would have to identify totally with their sphere of reality. I sat upright, and I remember thinking, <em>What and amazing thought! <\/em>The scaling-down of the size of me to perfectly represent who I am in the form of an ant! I know; I would have to do tricks! Things that no other ant could do!<\/p>\n<p>\n\n<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Then it hit me: I had just solved my problem of how finite creatures could ever discover God. God would have to come from the outside and reveal who he is.<\/p>\n<p>\n\n<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[405,411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3387,3402,3600,3933,4188,4218,4232,4256,4329,4526,4749,4877],"tax_ctp_topics":[397],"class_list":["post-37821","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-advent","tax_ctp_tags-agnosticism","tax_ctp_tags-christmas","tax_ctp_tags-faith","tax_ctp_tags-humanity-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-immanuel","tax_ctp_tags-incarnation-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-insight","tax_ctp_tags-knowing-god","tax_ctp_tags-nature","tax_ctp_tags-pursuing-sinners","tax_ctp_tags-salvation"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What Ants Taught Becky Pippert - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/what-ants-taught-becky-pippert\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Ants Taught Becky Pippert - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When Rebecca Pippert was an agnostic, she had one question she continually wrestled with: How can finite limited human beings ever claim to know God? 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