[H.M. Murdock]

When I was a little boy- not that I'm much past that point now- my mother bought me a green, hardback book- Aesop's Fables, as translated by Sir Roger L'Estrange in the early 1900s. I was perhaps the only kid within a hundred miles who got books instead of water guns; bowties and knee socks instead of camouflage and orange; muffins and fruit instead of pop tarts.
I never did read it until recently, and I came upon a series of fables that stood out to me, most of all a fable titled "A Flea and Hercules." It goes like this:

There was a fellow, that upon a flea-biting call'd out to Hercules for help. The flea gets away, and the man expostulates upon the matter. Well, Hercules; (says he) you that would not take my part against a sorry flea, will never stand by me in a time of need, against a more powerful enemy.
The moral, L'Estrange added, was that, "We neglect God in greater matters, and petition him for trifles, nay, and take pet at last if we cannot have our askings." He went on to add, in a section called "Reflections," that, "'Tis in ill habit to turn offices and duties of piety into matters and words only of course; and to squander away our wishes and our prayers upon paltry foolieries, whenn the great concerns of life and death, heaven and hell, lie all at stake. Who but a madman, that has so many necessary and capital duties of Christianity to think of, would ever have made a deliverance from a flea-biting a part of his litany? It makes our devotions ridiculous, to be so unfeeling on the one side, and so over-sensible and solicitous on the other. By this foolish and impertinent way of our proceeding toward the almighty, men slide by little and little into some sort of doubt if not a direct disbelief and contempt of his power. And then with the country-fellow here, if we can not obtain every vain thing we ask, our next business is to take pet at the refusal, nay, and in revenge to give over praying for good and all; and so to renounce heaven for a flea-biting."

What an odd thing! I had never seen Aesop's fables interpreted in such a way- in general, I have never heard a Christian refer to Aesop's fables whatsoever, and if they have, they have referred to it with no more respect than they would a Confucian proverb.
What can we gain from this? Nothing overly complex, of course. Merely that our vanity must fall before we allow our faith in God to fall. To pray that God would "Turn away my eyes from looking at vanity, and revive me in Your ways." (Psalm 119:35-37)

I am reminded of another book that so many people take for granted. It is rather an old book, and a classic. Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe.
We all know about Robinson Crusoe, of course; some guy that got stranded on an island. He's got a man he calls Friday who practically worships him, he carries a big goat-skin umbrella and he has a beard reminiscent of our common conception of, say, Blackbeard the pirate.
In reality, the story of Robinson Crusoe bears an important lesson for all Christians, if they can get past the half-page-long paragraphs and sentences that wander off into the sunset until returned to their purpose by a dry, "I say..."
In short, the story of Robinson Crusoe is simply a young man who leaves his family at a young age (around 18) against his father's wishes- he then travels on a few ships, encounters a few shipwrecks, and finally ends up a successful tobacco plantation owner in Brazil, if memory serves. On a trip to trade with savages around the African continent (my memory is hazy- I am about to reread the book, though), he is put through the shipwreck that results in the image we all have of Robinson Crusoe- stuck on an island for perhaps the rest of his life.
Up until shortly after his habitation on the islane begins, Crusoe is a rather bitter man- everything in his life is God's fault. The general idea is correct, but the impact is totally wrong. While, yes, everything in our life is the result of God's will, we cannot at any point say that it is his fault. As if God could make a mistake! "No, God, you've made a mistake. See, I was supposed to be a millionaire."
Instead, Crusoe realizes, all things are by God's providence, whereupon he goes through a spiritual rekindling of sorts. God's providence is a constant topic for the rest of the book, resurfacing again and again- by God's providence, Crusoe finds grapes and dries them to raisins. By God's providence, Crusoe is able to domesticate a herd of goats and breed them, until at last he has a standing number of about 40 goats to get milk, cheese, meat and fertilizer from for his gardening exploits. The garden is also on the account of God's providence, being composed of a little corn and a little wheat that survived the shipwreck in cloth sacks.

It is not that nothing bad happens to Crusoe- he is nearly killed by cannibals, for example. It is simply that Crusoe recognizes no flea- while the flea bites him, Crusoe marvels that he is gifted with a body; it is mere coincidence that the flea should be just as happy as Crusoe over the fact that he has a body, though admittedly for different reasons.

In our struggles with vanity, it is very easy to forget that the source of our vanity is purely temporal- it will fade and die. To think that we should abandon an infinite and eternal God for something that may or may not exist tomorrow! To think that we should be the deciders of fate, the judges of consequence. It's very sad.

"And I set my mind to know wisdom and to know madness and folly; I realized that this also is striving after wind. Because in much wisdom there is much grief, and increasing knowledge results in increasing pain." - Ecclesiastes 1:17-18

"Then Job answered the LORD and said, "I know that You can do all things, And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted. 'Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?' Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
'Hear, now, and I will speak; I will ask You, and You instruct me.' I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye sees You; therefore I retract, and I repent in dust and ashes."" - Job 42:1-6

Perhaps it might benefit us to remember that when the flea bites and we call for aid, but recieve none... maybe that isn't a time of need. We must then bear in mind that God, when we are in need, will aid us. Who can know what purpose he has in allowing a flea to bite us?

"For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." - Romans 15:4-6