A Grasshopper Complex
"We were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight" -- Numbers 13:33
Here was a case of what we might call a grasshopper complex. "Inferiority complex" is the name for it in modern psychology. Whatever you call it, it is a defeatist state of mind.
This defeatist mood possessed the children of Israel at a critical time in the nation’s history. They had completed their great trek through the wilderness, and now stood on the borders of the promised land. A dozen picked men were sent out to reconnoiter the new country. They returned with a glowing account of a land that "flowed with milk and honey." But ten of them came back in a state of fear and despair. "We be not able to go against the people," they said; "for they are stronger than we; the cities are walled, and very great; and there we saw giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight."
It is a true saying that people take us at the valuation we place upon ourselves. If we consider ourselves grasshoppers, then we will be treated as such. But if we believe in ourselves, and then go on to think and act on that faith—think and act courageously—we shall command respect.
The attitude with which we face life, the front we display, our state of mind with respect to ourselves, our place, our tasks, our purposes, our prospects—that very largely determines the measure of our success and rank in the world.
"If you think you’re beaten you are,
If you think you dare not you don’t:
If you’d like to win, but think you can’t,
It’s almost a cinch you won’t.
If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost,
For out in the world you’ll find
Success begins with a fellow’s will—
It’s all in a state of mind."
The promised lands of life cannot be taken if we approach them with a grass-hopper mentality. For all of life’s worth-while conquests, we need a virile faith and a purpose "ribbed and edged with steel." There are walled cities to be scaled and giants to be encountered in all Canaans worth conquering and possessing, and we might as well turn back if we feel like grasshoppers. You have got to feel like you are somebody if you expect to get anywhere and be anybody in this world. This is not a very comfortable or promising world for people with a grasshopper complex.
