Issue 1799 Busy Beaver August 29, 2025
One summer in my late teens, I worked for an oilfield service company. I was a grunt laborer and traveled into the field doing whatever necessary and unpleasant work needed to be done.
For a while, we had a beaver problem. Beavers are one way God uses His animals to mold and shape His creation. Their system of dam building can transform an area incredibly over time.
This particular beaver had decided to dam a culvert on a small creek, causing the road to flood. I’d get out of the truck, don hip waders, and pull the dam apart. In a day or two, the busy beaver would have it rebuilt. Various crews tore the dam down on multiple occasions.
The company I worked for even brought someone in to dynamite the dam and the beaver’s lodge. Even that didn’t work. The determined rodent started to rebuild. In the end, they called a trapper in and removed the beaver from the area.
Sometimes, we can be like that very determined rodent. We slave away at things, only to have them fail. Then we do it all over again and wonder why it doesn’t work.
Author Rita Brown once said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”It’s a profound quote often falsely attributed to Albert Einstein and others.
We try to live and serve under our own direction and power rather than relying on the leading of the Spirit. It’s a form of insanity.
Only God’s plans are infallible. Only God’s ways will lead us to the right place. We need the Spirit.
We were given the Spirit as a helper.
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever. John 14:16
…the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. John 14:26
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. Romans 8:26-27
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. Acts 1:8
All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills. 1 Corinthians 12:11
As believers, we have choices. We can work feverishly but in futility. Or we can trust the Spirit to lead and trust the Lord to produce fruit.
I pray we are all a little less like that beaver and a lot more like Jesus.
Hallelu Yah (Praise God)
Be blessed,
Kevin
Gleanings From The Word – Experience an extraordinary God in ordinary life.
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All contents, “Gleanings From The Word” and “Experience an Extraordinary God in Ordinary Life,” are © 2001, 2025 K.F. “Kevin” Corbin, Gleanings From The Word.
Unless otherwise noted, “Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”