The Ants Were Trying to Tell You Something

What’s worse than finding an ant in your bathroom? Realizing it’s a sign your house has got a problem. A few weeks ago, my wife and I noticed a couple of ants crawling across our master bathroom floor. Just one or two, nothing alarming. We’d sweep them away, but the next day, there they were again, like uninvited guests who wouldn’t take the hint. My wife, with her knack for sensing problems, said that the ants were probably an indication that we had a water leak somewhere. So I grabbed my tools and started tearing into the drywall behind the shower. Sure enough, there it was — a soggy, moldy mess. The culprit sadly was my own DIY disaster. I’d tried to make a drop-in tub work for a shower wall installation. I thought that with enough silicone and aluminum angle, I could make it work. Unfortunately, it did not. Water had been seeping through a tiny crack behind the shower wall with every shower, and now our weekends are filled with ripping out damage and rebuilding. I’ll be honest — it’s embarrassing to admit I caused this mess. But it’s also a reminder: I’m human, and humans are limited. We make mistakes because we can’t see the whole picture.

How many times have your best plans gone wrong because you didn’t have all the answers? Maybe it was a project, a relationship, or a choice you thought was foolproof. Our limitations — our inability to know everything, control everything, or do everything — are not just inevitable. They’re good. It’s actually a very good thing that we have these limitations. They’re good because of the nature of the Christian God. Our God is unlimited — completely, breathtakingly so. He is all-powerful, able to move mountains with no effort. He is all-knowing, seeing every moment of past, present, and future, seeing all that is both visible and invisible. He is omnipresent, with all of us in every joy and every pain. He is all-loving, pouring out mercy without end.

There can be only one unlimited being. There cannot be a second one, because if there was a second all-powerful being, they’d do conflicting things, and then neither would be unlimited. We like our unlimited, all-loving God. And that’s why our limitations are not just necessary. They’re good. We’re not all-knowing. We’re not all-present. Therefore, we’re going to make mistakes. We’re human, and that’s a wonderful thing. There can be only one unlimited being. So humans are inherently prone to making mistakes. One of my favorite things to share with my clients is that failure is a wonderful thing.

Sometimes people like to counter with the scripture verse where Jesus says, “Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Jesus is actually talking about something different there. The Greek words used there indicate that Jesus is saying that we should become fully developed in our spirituality: loving our enemies, being chaste, forgiving others, living a virtuous life. As humans, we work on developing ourselves as Jesus instructs. And we fail constantly while doing so.

Look at Peter and Paul, whose feast we celebrate. We celebrate these two people together since they played vital roles in the founding of the Church. Peter, the fisherman chosen to be the first pope, was a man of limits, of course. He spoke before thinking, and denied Jesus three times while Jesus was undergoing his Passion. I know that I would have behaved far more cowardly than Peter. I’m not going to pretend that I’m any better than Peter in this area. But his limitations did have an effect on him. Paul, before his conversion, was far worse — he hunted Christians, determined to destroy the early Church. These men were not chosen because they were perfect. Their limitations — Peter’s mistakes, Paul’s violent past — were the very reason God’s unlimited power could shine through them.

This is really important. God often can be seen operating in the gap between a person’s limitations and their strange ability to excel well beyond their limits. For example, when a prophet somehow knows that something is going to happen. Since they’re human, they can’t possibly know the future. But in cooperation with God, they can share a prophetic message.

Through Peter, God built his Church, a world-changing mission far beyond a simple fisherman’s capacity. Through Paul, God spread the Gospel across nations, using a former persecutor to write half the New Testament. Their weaknesses didn’t stop God. They enabled him to be seen in the impossible done through them.

This brings us to the Gospel. In Matthew chapter 16, in the story of Peter’s confession, Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter, guided by the Holy Spirit, answers, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus declares, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church.” This is the same Peter who will deny Jesus, yet God chooses him to lead. Why? Because Peter’s limits left room for God’s boundless grace. His faith was enough for God to work miracles through him. And when Peter stood up at Pentecost, preaching with a boldness that changed hearts, or when Paul endured shipwrecks and prisons to spread the Gospel, those were moments when God’s power shone through their human weakness, accomplishing what no human could do alone.

All of this is very exciting for us. Our limitations are good because they mesh with an unlimited God. My bathroom disaster taught me that. I thought I could outsmart a bad design, but I couldn’t see the water seeping behind the wall. I’m limited, and that’s a gift. It’s in those limits that I turn to God, who sees what I can’t and fixes what I break. When we embrace our weaknesses — our doubts, our mistakes, our not-enough moments — when we embrace them, God steps in and does the extraordinary. Maybe you’ve felt too small for a challenge, too weak for a calling, or too broken to make a difference. That’s exactly where God works. We just have to cooperate with him. When you choose to forgive someone who hurt you, love someone who’s hard to love, or step out in faith despite your fear, and it feels bigger than you — God is working in your life. That’s his unlimited power moving past your limits.

It is very good for us to celebrate our limitations. We thank God for them. They’re the cracks where his light shines through. Like Peter, if you’re called to step out of the boat, do so, even if you’re afraid. Like Paul, offer your past, your struggles, to God, trusting he’ll transform them. My bathroom is still a work in progress, so am I. And so are you.

Say yes to God in your weakness, and watch him do amazing things through you — things that change the world, just as he did through Peter and Paul.

If you are mortified by a mess you caused, start by saying the embarrassing sentence without adding a verdict. I caused the leak. I thought silicone would be enough. I could not see the water behind the wall. That is the fact. “I am the problem” is a different sentence. The first one can be true. The second one is the shame talking.

Then separate the repair from the identity. The drywall still has to come out. The weekends still get spent rebuilding. That work does not require you to become the unlimited one. There is only one of those. You are the person who missed the crack. Call the limitation by its name — I did not know, I could not see the whole picture — and do the next repair step anyway.

If what you are carrying is not a project but a past, the same split applies. Peter denied him and was still the one Jesus named. Paul had hunted the Church and was still sent. You do not have to pretend the past was small. You do have to stop treating the past as proof that God cannot work in the gap. Bring the actual failure to reconciliation if it is a sin. Then do the one next thing that is bigger than you feel: the apology, the return, the work you have been calling yourself too small to start.

This is a pastoral reflection, not clinical care and not a substitute for it. If you or someone you love is in immediate danger, call 988 or local emergency services.

Drawn from a homily first preached in 2025.