BOLD Ministry

The New Year is a great time and place to rethink our ideas and assumptions about business, life and faith.

You may have heard about the cage containing five hungry monkeys.  In case you have, it’s worth rereading at least once a year.  And in the case that you haven't, well sit back and enjoy this modern parable.

In this cage, hung a banana on a string and under it were a bunch of stair leading to it. After a short amount of time, one of the entrepreneurial monkeys goes toward the stairs and starts his climb towards the banana.

As soon as he touches the stairs, there comes this spray of cold water which soaks all of the monkeys in the cage with cold water.

After a while, another hungry monkey attempts the climb with the same results - all of the monkeys are sprayed with cold water. This happens for the next few days.

Then without any warning or notice, the cold water is turned off.

Now, if, one of the monkeys tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys try to prevent it even though no water sprays them.

Now, if we remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one the result is interesting.

The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his horror, all of the other monkeys attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm.

Replace the third original monkey with a new one. The new one makes it to the stairs and is attacked as well. Two of the four monkeys that beat him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs, or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.

After replacing the fourth and fifth original monkeys, all the monkeys which have been sprayed with cold water have been replaced. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs.

Why not?

"Because that's the way it's always been done around here.

I first read this story in a book on worship, referencing the roadblocks that we create to true worship of God.  This year 2009 could be my year when we climb the spiritual ladder of worship and we surprise ourselves by reaching the banana.