Learn from a Monkey Business

Here’s an old story about how to catch a monkey in Africa we can glean from. All an African had to do was build a Plexiglas box and drill a hole in it just big enough for the monkey’s arm to get through. Then they would place a banana inside the Plexiglas box underneath a tree. The monkeys would come to investigate.

The monkey would reach in through the hole and grab the banana with his hands. But, as you can imagine, when the monkey wants to get the banana out of the box, it won’t come. A banana won’t fit through the hole. The problem is the monkey won’t let go. The monkey’s gotta’ have that banana. The monkey is free but what he is hanging on to is enslaving him. All the monkey must do is let go.

Well, you know the rest of the story. The monkey won’t let go and the African has monkey stew that night. That monkey’s business went out of business.

There’s a lesson for us from this monkey business. Let go of the banana! During my many years of ministry, I have counseled great people who wouldn’t or couldn’t let go of something they needed to let go of. They wanted me to counsel their banana. Some thought they had a demon and wanted me to cast out their banana. Some wanted me to inner heal their banana by taking them back to their childhood.

To be honest, most times what they needed to do was let go of the banana. I couldn’t let go of their banana for them. Only they could let go of their banana and that’s difficult for many of us.

For everything there is a season. There is a time to not let go and a time to let go. Speaking of monkey business, sometimes we need to persevere, hang on, and fight like we are the third monkey trying to get into Noah’s Ark. But other times, we need to let go. We give up so we can go up. There is a time to accept what is, let go of what was, and have faith in what will be.

Here’s something I found someone wrote entitled Letting Go that might help us. It’s about personal responsibility. It’s about the way we deal with ourselves and others. Maybe it will even help us get past the monkey business of holding on to a banana that is robbing us of joy. Apply the statement that applies to you. 

Remember that song entitled, Let It Go, a few years ago in the movie Frozen. The main character was frozen in the past. She had to let it go to let it go. When she did her self-esteem was better. Her relationships were better. Her domain was better. She went from the outhouse to the penthouse.

Isn’t amazing what a banana can do in the hands of a monkey? When you let it go, you let God go too, for your benefit and in your behalf.

Ed Delph     March 4, 2019  CCC


Dr. Ed Delph

www.nationstrategy.com