Birds, worms and death

Posted on May 19, 2011 by RWollard

So, I got up early this morning, as is my routine, watching the sun break into the day and admiring my freshly cut, nicely manicured backyard. We have this big, fat robin that sits on the fence and oversees the yard every morning. Actually, he is a pig and just wants all the worms for himself. I’m not kidding, I watch that thing drive off other birds and eat like 10 worms a minute!

As I’m pondering the scene (I’m feeling particularly reflective and creative this week for some reason), I am reminded, of all things, about Matthew 6:26 and how valuable I am to God. I was remind of how my heavenly Father cares for and feeds the birds, and as I watch this little guy scarfing down worms, I realize, I am much more important than the birds!

So I get in my truck after the kids get off to school and I’m headed in to work on my sermon this weekend. I’m feeling pretty good after my reflection on Matthew 6:26, when all of a sudden, I see a robin cross the road in front of me. Now, there are birds all over the place, and many times, simply crossing the road. Nothing out of the ordinary, they usually just fly off as a car approaches. But this guy is waiting until the last minute.

As my brain starts processing this, I realize he is not flying away! There is a curb to my left… I’m trying to check the right lane… is there a car in my blind spot? Decide what to do, NOW! So I  move toward the curb so that the bird goes under the middle of my car, and at least has a chance! As I look in the rear view mirror, what do I see? Feathers. They are floating all in the air, and I see this little bird-body laying in the middle of my lane.

I don’t know… I’m probably over thinking this. I’m for sure writing about it to soon. It just happened and I haven’t really processed through it. Or should I process through it at all? It’s a goofy bird. It’s like a flying rodent that eats insects!

What does the Bible say: 48 times the phrase “birds of the air” appears, I know that God cares for them, and I had just experienced a devotional thought at the crack of dawn with one. Okay, I can’t ignore it, so this is what I came up with:

Romans 6:23 says that the wages of sin is death. Here is the bad news – the bird died, and oh yea, you and I are going to die too. But death is only temporary, and here is the good news – we have the assurance of heaven and eternal life through faith in Christ!

The bird was cared for, until his life ended. How much more will God care for me until my life ends! We might not always feel good about the timing and method of death, and I think that is okay. But this we know: death is certain, but while we are alive, God loves us, cares for us, and provides for all of our needs in Christ Jesus – thanks be to God (and for the birds of the air)!

Hey, you know what… I never thought about the worm that died when it got eaten by the bird. Hummm…

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Be In It – Not Of It

Posted on February 25, 2011 by RWollard

What do you do when God stirs up something so strong in your heart, you think you are going to bust?  This is a particularly perplexing issue for someone that is so easily distracted.  Occasionally for me, I am able to channel enough focus in one direction that I am able to do something halfway meaningful with it, which is one of the reasons I love preaching, teaching, blogging, etc. – it forces me to focus!

These past few months I have been praying on and studying Romans 12, but there is a great study by Chip Ingram called Living on the Edge that I have particularly enjoyed these past few weeks that have really challenged me to think through where I need to work on “not conforming to the patterns of this world.”

For example, the pattern of this world is to simply ignore issues relating to something as basic as how we define marriage.  You know what the issues are; we are surrounded by them every day.  What do you do with that?  I’ve always believed it is better to let the light of Christ shine on an issue rather than curse the darkness, but what happens when the light doesn’t seem to bring about my desired outcome.

If I am doing everything I can reasonably think of about something disturbing, and others are doing the same, what are we to make of the fact that we still have disturbing outcomes? Well, here is what I came up with this morning. God is God, and I am not, and things will go down just as He has planned them.

This is probably the conclusion Paul had come to when he penned Romans 1:25-26, “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator…  because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones!”

Okay, so I am not supposed to be surprised by the things I see going on around me, after all, Satan is over this world.  But that doesn’t mean I have to like it, and there are some simple things I can do to fight it.  For example, I can send an email/letter to my legislators pleading with them to defend marriage between a man and woman as God designed it.  I did that this morning, and so can you.  Check out this link: http://tinyurl.com/4e7ndng

In the end, I will continue to do my part while knowing and trusting that God is in control.  I think that is the way God wants it.  I also trust that He will continue showing me areas of my life that His light needs to shine into, and am so grateful for the hope that we have in Christ!

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