While living in Singapore I have loved the ethnic variety of the food. One of my favorite foods is Chili Crab. The crab, from which the delicious food is made, is a very unique creature whose entire life is characterized by change. As the crab matures, it breaks out of its hard crusty shell and begins the process of forming a new one. Its life is marked by a passage through successive shells until a shell is built so durable that it cannot be broken. This shell stops growth and then becomes the crab’s coffin.

Life for the crab continues as long as he dares to break his shell. Since his growth is limited by the shell, significant growth occurs when he is in-between shells. During this time he is extremely vulnerable and growing. Old shells are not necessarily good or bad. As a matter of fact, when a new shell is being formed there is tremendous room for growth. The security and comfort gained through the new shell enables the crab to grow and become strengthened in preparation for the next shedding of a shell. Yet there does come a time when any shell limits growth and must be shed if the crab is to grow. It is also significant that once a shell is shed and the crab grows, it can never fit back into the old shell again.

Churches as well as individual Christians can learn much from the life cycle of a crab. Significant growth occurs when our security shells are broken and we are made vulnerable- thus forced to trust God more. Jacob is an example of one who passed through a succession of shells. Leaving home broke his shell and he became vulnerable before God, making the Bethel experience possible. Years later he repeated the same process with Laban. Significant growth took place when Jacob was between shells. Had Jacob not left the security of 20 years of fruitful labor with Laban he might never have become the man of God we so highly respect. You can trace a similar pattern in almost every biblical character.

You have surely experienced the same paradox in your own life as I have. Sometimes we need the loving tap of a friend on our shells to realize that we have become confined and need to break out of a shell of comfort, a bad habit, or other qualities in our life that have confined us before the shell gets too hard and becomes a coffin. Sometimes all we need is encouragement. At other times it may be God, through trials due to job loss, death, illness, and marital difficulties or financial loss that leads us to a state of brokenness. As the shell is broken, we become vulnerable and are forced to trust God more deeply.

Has your spiritual growth become stagnant. Learn from the crab. Maybe there is a shell in your life that you need to shed!