TADPOLES AND FROGS

 By Michael K. Farrar, O.D.

© God’s Breath Publications

 

Anyone who has ever experienced childhood near a stream or pond knows about polliwogs or as some call them, tadpoles. These are the immature form of what eventually will turn out to be frogs. They are rather strange creatures having a humongous head and semi proportional tail. When tadpoles are out of the water their head flops uselessly from side to side without the suspension of any liquid medium for support. The absence of legs prevents these poor creatures from any significant action or exploration out of the water. Even their movements within their stream or pond might be classified as no more than “twisting contortions.” While they possess an immense head with a functional brain, they are basically restricted to their one purpose in life a feeding machine. Until they mature as creatures and sprout legs for a more fulfilled and destined purpose they are immature in actions and behavior.

 

These mega-head creatures could remind you of those Christians you meet at times who have a head full of knowledge but lack any desire to act on it. Having a puffed up head, they take pride and glory in the amount of spiritual truths they have stored in their gray matter. Their sole purpose in their spiritual experience is to gather and collect as much “data” about scripture as time permits. The problem is the stored spiritual precepts have made little or no contact with their heart. Just like the tadpoles, they travel through life suspended by the living water of God’s grace, but fail to take any action because they have not sprouted legs of action. They shirk from ministry opportunities and fail to see the needs of others. Their desire is not to put feet to their faith but to seek the acquisition of more spiritual facts and figures to file away in their ever growing head. These Christians resemble the Pharisees of Jesus’ day. The Pharisees knew God’s law inside and out. They failed to let God’s word impact their lives in a spiritual manner and sought meaning in the minuscule rules and regulations of truth. Just like tadpoles they paraded around towns and villages showing off their immense heads full of God’s law but failing to see situations of where it could be applied. Jesus had no kind words for such creatures. He called them a brood of vipers and whitewashed sepulchers. Jesus saw them for what they were, spiritual tadpoles possessing huge heads full of knowledge but lacking any desire to seek to minister to people’s needs. Christ knew then, and convicts us now, that to remain simply a storehouse of Biblical knowledge is not what He intended for us. We have a higher calling, a more meaningful purpose.  

 

We all can be tempted to become spiritual Pharisee tadpoles as we are inundated by the tons of Bible study guides, Biblical computer programs, Christian literature and worship music available today. Christians are not lacking in exposure to knowledge of God’s word. There are numerous books, pamphlets, and media options for us to learn more about God, His Son and His Spirit. We have almost unlimited resources to enable us to know how to apply Christianity to our lives. If we allow ourselves to be puffed up by our spiritual knowledge and live a sort of self-serving Christian life, we will fail to see the needs of those around us. God grants truth not as an end in itself, but as a means to knowing more of Him so that we can live for Him and bring others into His Kingdom. Living for God is not striving to gain more knowledge; it is allowing the knowledge we have to impress upon our hearts the need to live righteously. Righteous living is not only how we think inwardly it also entails how we serve outwardly. The greatest commandment is to love the Lord with all our heart, mind and soul. The second greatest is to love our neighbor as ourselves. Both of these commandments are fulfilled when we seek to obey Jesus’ commandment of spreading the gospel to all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

 

There is another animal I observed once which might serve to illustrate another imbalance that can occur in a Christian. Once as a young boy I walked into the woods which bordered a garden my dad had recently tilled with the Rotor Tiller. I heard a rustle in the bushes and wondered if a lizard had noticed my presence. I saw something at the base of a Manzanita bush but did not recognize its appearance. It had the legs and body of a frog, but something didn’t appear proper. As I navigated around the bush, this frog would turn in my direction following my movement. What was strange about this frog I discovered was it was lacking a head. Apparently it had gotten caught in the garden as my dad had tilled it and it had been decapitated. Headless now, it was doomed to living a useless life. It was able to maneuver, but lacking a head, there was no purpose to its movement. Headless, this frog possessed no ability to make decisions properly. It could only respond to the tremors of the ground as other creatures approached. Its decapitated condition prevented it from seeing things clearly and without a mouth it was not able to feed properly. In this state, its sole purpose was to hop around and explore blindly. Physical activity was the only purpose it had in life anymore.

 

This might illustrate another condition that Christians can find themselves. If we fail to submit to the headship of Christ, the authority of His Word and the fellowship of the local Body of Believers we can place ourselves in a similar situation as the headless frog. We have legs to carry out our faith but we lack head knowledge of how to do it. A condition such as this will cause us to live our spiritual lives by the passions and whims that drive us. Lacking proper spiritual discernment due to the lack of knowledge of God’s truth, we are trapped into responding in only a simplistic manner. Spiritually headless we are at risk of falling prey to any false teacher, peripheral religious belief or spiritual charlatan that might come along. Just as knowledge can “puff up,” lack of knowledge can “shrivel up” the potential joys of living a life balanced by God’s Word and His Spirit. If we fail to feed our mind in spiritual matters with God’s truth, we will lack discernment in spiritual situations of testing. We may be mature physically, but spiritually we are destined to remain babes in Christ.

 

Fulfilling my analogy completely requires me to compare a normal dedicated servant of Christ to that of a mature adult frog. If you will strive not to snicker, I would place before you that in some ways this is true. A mature frog is a balanced creature. He or she has reached the maturity of growth and development for which it was created. It possesses a head that guides its movements and motivates it to explore for food and existence. It possesses front and rear legs for movement in its environment so that it can avoid predators and seek out nourishment. It has achieved the purpose for which God created it.

 

Mature Christians are similar creations of the Lord. They know their spiritual head is Christ Himself. They allow their own hearts and minds to be governed not only by God’s Word, but also by His Spirit that resides within them. They allow this spiritual wisdom to direct their paths as they go about daily living, making decisions that influence their road to holiness. They seek to minister to others not for self glory or attention, but because the Spirit of God within them motivates them to bring glory to God by ministering to others and bringing glory to God. They are not aimlessly running from one emotional spiritual high to another, nor are they allowing their ears to be tickled by every fancy wind of doctrine that false teachers might throw their way. They steadily, motivated by love for their Savior, seek to live according to the purpose for which they were created, to serve their living Savior, bring others into the Kingdom and live a holy life.

 

How’s your spiritual head? Is it puffed out of proportion? Do you fail to act on your faith because you are content to simply acquire an awareness of truth? Do you spend time in God’s Word allowing it to affect your actions? Do you live by your wits rather than spiritual guidance from God’s Word and His Spirit?

 

We are called in the Christian life to know more of God so that we can take action on that knowledge. Holiness is truth, stimulating faith to take action. Let us seek to grow in Christ.

 

Philippians 1:5 6

“Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

 

For further study read the following verses and write down some thoughts about what you have read and how it would apply to your life.

 

Matthew 25:1-46

 

Romans 8:6 8, 12:1-2

 

Ephesians 4:15-16

 

Colossians 1:17-20

 

2 Timothy 4:4-5

 

James 1:22-25