Skip to main content

Consider the Hummingbird


I have a hummingbird feeder on my porch. It's one of my favorite things about summer. I'm entranced with the little birds who come to feed on the sugar water I prepare for them. At times they buzz around the feeder, trying to figure out whether or not I'm safe, and have even flown within two feet of where I'm seated. They're skittish in general and will fly away if I look at them too long.

 They don't realize I'm the one providing for them and that I'd never do anything to hurt them.

 God cares for us in the same way. He's watching out for us, giving us what we need, yet we spend most of our time flitting about without much thought to His presence in our lives. What He wants most is to spend time with us without us shying away from His strength. He's proven Himself faithful, has proven His intentions toward us, and has proven that He will never hurt us but we tend to put up walls in an attempt to keep Him in one spot as if we can control Him. Trying to shut Him out in any area of our lives will never elevate us to the level of spiritual maturity we desire. Giving control of our lives and our will is never easy, it's a huge step of faith but in doing so we actually gain much more than we lose.

 We gain freedom from fear and confusion.
We gain wisdom and understanding.
We gain peace and rest.

 Instead of flitting from here to there we are able to remain calm, knowing He is in control.

 Yet sometimes bullies come along who want to take our focus from Him. While I enjoy the tiny birds in my yard they have a tendency to be territorial and aggressive with each other. One likes to perch on a clothesline close to the feeder and when another bird lands to feed the clothesline sitter immediately springs to action, chasing the other bird away and into the trees. As soon as he's finished his task he returns to the clothesline to sit on guard. Watching and waiting for someone to take what he thinks is his.

 What he doesn't realize is this is my house. It's my feeder. I'm the one who placed it there for them. I didn't hang it from the ceiling so they could have a power struggle over it. How dare the bully chase the others away and prevent them from getting what they need. Their focus goes from the food to themselves.

 I've seen this same type of thing happen in church. Folks with good intentions enforcing their ideas of how things should be. All this does is take the focus off of the Word of God--our daily bread--and onto their agenda. Allowing yourself to be involved in an arguments at church is nothing more than allowing yourself to be used by the enemy. Christians are used by the enemy all the time. He is a master of deceit and when the focus is taken off of the goal of the church (to make disciples, to fulfill the great commission, to be kind and forgiving to one another...) he wins. Why would the world want anything to do with us if we are fighting among ourselves?

 "Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will." 2 Timothy 2:23-26 (NIV)

 Just as I am watching and shaking my head while these hummingbirds fight over the food, God is watching. Not only Him, but the world is watching, be the light.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kitchen floor woes

I spent a better part of this afternoon lamenting how much I hate my kitchen floor. It puzzles me as to why anyone would install such flooring. Not only is it ugly, but also impractical. It also puzzles me as to why, after nearly nine years in this house, I still have this floor. Well. It doesn't puzzle me that much ($$$). I clean it only once a year.  Don't judge,  I Swiffer and spot clean in between. And I have a dog who does her share of, ahem , cleaning it.  But see all of those deep grout lines? Scrubbing around each brick tile and into those lines is beastly. It's much harder than getting foundation out of the lines on my face. Douse with cleaner. Scrub with rough sponge. Wipe with cloth rag. Rinse with rag. Rinse again in between each brick tile until it's done. Roughly two hours of scrubbing and rinsing. Similar process to removing makeup, but much more labor intensive.  Yes, I could use a mop but scrubbing...
Post a Comment
Read more

Front Row Seat

  If you've been around me any length of time, you'll know I love having a front row seat when possible. Church. Concerts. Comedy shows. Auctions. I want to be front and center, where the action is, so I don't get distracted and miss something. I want to be part of the event and front is where it's at.  Lately I've had a front row seat to some things that I wish I could unsee. My mother's Alzheimer's diagnosis and the last year and a half of watching her slow and steady decline into a world of unknowns has taken a toll.  I tend to hold every emotion inside. Always have. I've learned -these past fifteen months or so- that this is bad for my health. Stress levels are impacting how I feel. Palpitations, and a diagnosis of "harmless" PACs, have left me trying to manage this stress. It's gotten easier but, I'll admit, I still have things shoved down inside. And then along came CDH. A diagnosis I'd not heard of before it was given to...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sweet Zoey

 Zoey - August 10, 2020 When we found her I didn't realize I needed her. Sure, she needed us, she was living in woods, alone, surviving on whatever she could find. She was nine months old, the vet later told me when I took her in for a check-up, still unsure I wanted to keep this undernourished mutt. We'd been on vacation in southwest Missouri, near the Arkansas border, in the middle of the woods. I was on the porch when I saw her trotting down the dirt road. A little brown dog. I whistled and she stopped to look at me from across the lawn. Then she continued on her way. Later that night, the family was watching a movie we'd brought (no cable service out there!) and suddenly this furry face popped up in the window, scaring my husband out of his seat. We fed her some people food and went to bed.  She was still there in the morning. We asked around and no one knew where she came from. We fed her some more and she stayed. The next day we went and bought some dog food, f...
5 comments
Read more