Don't Choose the Poop!

 


Years ago we had the most amazing parakeet named Bella. She was so smart and so friendly. We would open her cage and let her fly about the house with us. She loved to hang out with us at the table, sampling the food on the edges of our plates and sipping from our coffee. Her favorite treat though was paper. Oh how she loved to chew the edges of a piece of paper! Many times my kids had to turn in their homework with a smirk and admit that their bird had eaten it. She also loved digital devices, and she quickly learned that the warmth of her nose would trigger things on the screen. I had her send more than a few strange texts and emails!

 

But her time out of the cage was limited. We couldn’t, for her safety, leave her out all the time. Every once in a while, the strangest thing would happen. We’d open her cage door for her to come out and, instead, she’d hang out on the bottom of the cage, with her poop. Just bopping around, hanging out, missing out on all the fun outside. I feel like, unknowingly, we do this too.

For God wants you to silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing good. Live as free people, not using your freedom as a pretext for evil, but as God's slaves.  1 Peter 2: 15-16

Jesus paid a high price, his very life and connection with the Father, to free us from our sin. And yet, at times, we choose to live in that sin still. We justify it with the knowledge that God will forgive us, and He will, but hanging out there is not His best for us, and it sullies the great and beautiful gift we’ve been given. As servants of God we are free to live full lives of joy and peace. We are no longer bound by sin and shame and instead we can thrive in the open ended options granted us when He broke our chains.

Here's the Thing: Jesus opened the door to your cage. Would you rather hang out on the bottom with the poop or fly out into the world and experience the wonder?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Guest Post: How are you doing?

Image
  How are you doing?   TLDR; I’m fine… I’m good   I have been more aware lately when asked how I am doing. I often dislike that question as I know the expected answer is supposed to be something along the lines of, I am fine.   That is far from the correct answer, and it bothers me equally answering falsely as much as it bothers me when someone is asking me how I am doing and not actually caring how I am doing.   I believe that most people do not do this intentionally, just that it has become so habitual that it is part of who they are.   I challenge you to either stop using that introductory phrase, or to immediately follow up with an affirmation that you really do care how someone is doing. Let them know that you have a few minutes and really do want to hear how they are doing, and how you can at least pray for them. If stopping to hear how someone is doing is out of your comfort zone, why not try being honest when you are having a really crappy day, week, month and briefly let
Read more

Reflections on Having a Brain Tumor

Image
  Picture     So how does one live with a brain tumor?  Honestly, I'm still trying to figure that out.  My doctor seems to think that it shouldn't be a big deal.  He's like, "See you next year!" and here I am trying to understand what that looks like.  I have this thing in my brain, embedded in my Cerebellum to the point that my surgeon cannot safely remove it. It *may* be affecting my vision, nausea, balance, etc., but really, we can't know for sure.  I guess the reality is that I should just go about my business, continuing life to the best of my ability, until I bump up against the tumor.  That might look like an appointment with an MRI to check its status, like I had a couple of weeks ago, or it might be symptoms that make me question whether the tumor is affecting things. I have no way of knowing when or if that might happen, except for a scheduled appointment of course, so I have to figure out a way of living life that takes that into account.       The
Read more

The Call That Changes Your Life

Image
We see it in movies and TV shows, but we always hope it will never happen to us. The phone rings and it's someone unexpected, a police officer, a relative, a doctor. They give us news we weren't expecting, and from that moment on our lives are forever different. And it's not just our future that's different. We begin to define our past as "before"and "after" this life changing news.  I got the call last Monday, February 27th, 2023. Ironically, it came just two days after the anniversary of another one of those calls, the one letting me know that my brother had died unexpectedly at the age of 40, two years ago. This time it wasn't my Mom calling, it was the ARNP from my neurologist's office. She was calling me at 5:30 at night the next business day after I had had a brain MRI. Right away I knew this wasn't going to be another, "Everything looks fine, we don't know why you're in pain all the time," call. That n
Read more