What Are The Cicadas Teaching Me About God?

For the first time in several weeks, I’m sitting on my patio drinking coffee and enjoying time in the Presence of God without a consistent and VERY LOUD buzz from the cicada invasion of 2021! This is the third rendition of the cicada invasion in my lifetime. I know, I’m getting old! When the first cicada invasion in my lifetime happened I was 3 or 4 years old and as a child, they were scary yet fascinating. I don’t have many memories of that summer as I was still pretty young, but I do remember staring out the window watching the cicadas, you know from a protected distance! When the second cicada invasion in my lifetime happened I was 20 years old and was beginning my apprenticeship in the electrical trade. This was a much different experience as my work often had me outdoors and my fear of cicadas wasn’t an acceptable excuse for me to not show up for work, so I did! It was miserable working outdoors in the heat, getting dirty from my work, and having to be bombarded every minute of every day with cicadas. Most of my memories of this second invasion were pretty horrible, some of you may be able to relate! 

The most recent rendition of the cicada invasion though annoying at times has been quite a bit different for me. Now my work is mostly done from the comfort of my home or work office, local coffee shops, and breweries, and in our gathering space at Church. While the challenges of my work may be different in many ways one of the very welcomed ways is not having to work outside while the cicada invasion was taking place. For the most part, the most challenging part of this cicada season for me has been keeping my windshield clear enough to see out of it while I was driving. The lessened challenges of having to “deal with” the cicadas have  given me the opportunity to experience them in a new way. In addition to not having to “deal with” the cicada, for the most part, God has been kind to provide more margin in my life than I’ve ever had and the practice of some spiritual disciplines that have provided the opportunity to be more reflective and see things differently than I could when my life was full of noise and very busy! 

Just the other day I was thinking about the lifecycle of the cicada. It is absolutely fascinating to me that their entire above the surface of the earth existence is 17 years in the making. Even once they emerge they live just a few short weeks. Think about that. They spend 17 years preparing for a purpose that lasts just a few short weeks. God sustained them for 17 years in the ground so that they could emerge, mate, and die. In our fast-paced, efficiency worshipping, and immediacy-driven world it’s hard to imagine this,  isn’t it? There is something poetically beautiful about this phenomenon that I think digs down deep into my soul. A soul that is wearied by the fast-paced, ever-changing world where we don’t really stop to enjoy much. Any media content that we’d ever want to consume is at our fingertips through what seems like endless amounts of streaming subscriptions. By using Amazon Prime I can get almost anything I could ever need or want shipped to my house free in just 2 short days. Our meals are fast, our conversations and attention spans are short! As I reflect on this efficient and immediate way of life, I’m left wondering, are we more grateful? Is our life full of more joy? Have more things and more efficient ways of getting these things made us better as humanity? I’m deeply thankful for the tools and resources that make my life better like Amazon, Instacart, drive-through service, and the list goes on and on and on but I also think there is much to learn about God through his creation and care for the cicada. Here are just a few things I’m learning about God from the cicada. 

God invites us to slow down and wait on Him

So many times in scripture we read “Wait on the Lord”! What is it about waiting that is so dang hard? Waiting requires that we trust God. I feel a ton of pressure most of the time about making things happen, do you relate? My value is often deeply connected to my performance in what I’m doing. No wonder I give right into the fast-paced, efficiency-driven demands of my own heart. When I have something to prove it’s deeply challenging for me to wait on God. Waiting also works against the immediacy that I experience in so much of my life. I don’t have to wait for much of anything in life, and It’s proven to not be very good for my soul. I complain more than I am grateful. I’m bitter more than I’m glad. I’m tired more than I’m rested. Waiting is good for my soul for many reasons, one of them being it slows me down. In waiting on God I’m reminded that God is in control of this world, and I am not. In waiting on God I’m reminded that the world revolves around Him and not me. In waiting, I’m reminded that God makes things beautiful in His timing and not mine. Waiting has brought clarity to what is most important and what I genuinely need, not just what I want at the moment. I’ve never once regretted taking more time to make a decision, but I’ve often regretted rushing into things too quickly. Can you think of a time where you’ve moved too quickly and wished that you would have waited a little longer? 

Can you imagine living in the ground preparing for your two weeks of life for 17 years? I can’t imagine, but I’m asking God to teach me to be more ok with His process. At this moment I feel like God is working on something in my heart and my mind for my future and the future of our Church. When I get anxious about it, I open my window, and in the hum of the cicadas, I’m reminded that God’s ways are not my ways and that God will make all things perfect in His timing, and I’m reminded to wait on Him! 

How may God be inviting you to slow down and wait on Him today? 

God invites us to be present where we are

I live so much of my life in what is next that I can’t enjoy what is now. Do you relate? Are you so caught up in what was or what is to come that you find it almost impossible to be present to what is? I totally get lost in the past or the future that it’s hard to be present in the moment that is right in front of me! Can you imagine being prepared for something for 17 years? In the Scriptures, we read often of God’s preparing a people or a person. This preparation is often measured in decades and years rather than days, hours, and minutes. This is so foreign to us, isn’t it? I find myself in a season of preparation, without even knowing fully what I’m being prepared for. My mind often switches back and forth from languishing what was to dream about what is to come. It’s a moment-by-moment fight for me to be present wherever I am. I’ve found comfort in observing the cicadas fly around enjoying the moment of fulfilling their purpose. Sure, they’re here for a couple of weeks with the sole purpose of mating and returning to the ground. Could that be sustained over a lifetime of 70, 80, or 90 years? Who knows! They are here and then they are gone. The timeline may be unique to them but that isn’t so far removed from our human experience. 

The book of James describes life as a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes in James 4:14. The encouragement is to not live life in the tomorrow but the today, and that is what I’ve been observing in the life of the cicada. Thomas Merton encourages us to “be a son of this instant”, he goes on to say that “the present is our right place, where the mind is at home. Otherwise, it is drawn out of its depths into the illusion to which it tends, exiling us from the present, displacing in the imaginary, the absent, in a future or a past beyond acceleration that is the hallmark of our contemporary life.” 

I wonder, what am I missing in the present by my time spent in the past or the future? The call of God is to be present where I am, that is where he meets me! He, not I is in control of the future so I’m asking day by day and moment by moment for the Spirit of God to teach me to live in the present! I’m asking for the Holy Spirit to teach me to walk with God day by day and moment by moment. I’m asking the Holy Spirit to teach me to play the long game, to live life one day at a time with an eternal perspective that trusts God with each moment! I’m learning that the man or woman who walks with God always arrives at his or her destination. 

My prayer is that the Lord would continue teaching me how to be present with Him, present with myself, and present with others day by day and moment by moment. How may God be inviting you into the present right now? What about the past or the future are you anxious about? How may God be inviting you to trust Him through these very things in this very moment? What may God be teaching you through the cicadas?

Submitted by: Matt Korte