How to Conquer “Grasshopper Syndrome”

Have you ever felt overwhelmed with problems or challenges?

There sure have been times in my life when I was faced with issues the size of giants and I felt like a grasshopper.

What do you do in moments like that? Cave in, give up before you start? Or try to psych yourself up, with a slogan like, “You can do it”!

I don’t know about you, but I have found that none of these tricks really work. To simply do nothing, is also not an option. What then can you do? Let me tell you a story that has helped me not to give in to grasshopper syndrome.

Twelve leaders, all of them representatives of their tribes, had been given the task to scout a new place, a new plot of land. They were to check what the land looked like. Was the land good and fertile or poor? Were there other people living in this land and were they strong or weak? Did their cities have fortified walls or not? Last but not least, they were tasked with bringing some fruit from the country. After forty days the scouts came back to their people with a huge cluster of grapes that had to be carried by two people. When they gave their report, they were in agreement: The land was a land of abundance. But ten of the twelve added fearfully that the people living in the land were powerful giants and their cities were large and protected. Their final verdict:

We were like grasshoppers in their sight!

Numbers 13:33 (The Bible)

Two of the twelve disagreed with the majority. Yes, they too had seen the giants and the fortified cities, but they drew a different conclusion. Were they just optimists, determined to see the positive and minimize the negative?

What set them apart was that they had confidence in God who had promised the land to them. They had submitted their whole lives to God. They were willing to obey him, even if it was dangerous and difficult. This gave them boldness to stand against popular opinion and the giants. Most importantly, their confidence didn’t rest in themselves, but in the dependability of God.

Rather than looking at the giant sized problems, the two spies, Joshua and Caleb, looked at their all-powerful God, who had proven himself to their ancestors so many times. As the other ten men, they were as aware of the difficulties–but they were impressed by their awesome God! How often do we have it backwards? We are just aware of God but really impressed by our challenges.