Yard Birds

Are You A Yard Bird

When I was growing up, we always had yard birds, what some folks now call free-range chickens. The newest title for these animals sounds so much more distinguished. I was not a fan of these animals for several reasons. One chief reason was that yard birds loved to walk across our front porch and . . . how can I put this delicately? Let’s just say that these animals needed to wear pampers. Anyway, because of their lack of bathroom decorum, I was assigned the daily job of dragging the hose from the pump house and hosing off the yard bird mess (literally), so our front porch wouldn’t look or smell like a chicken coop. Whoa to the bird who happened to be on the porch when I had the water hose on. I would kink the line, build up a little pressure, and blast the foul fowl back to the yard where it belonged. The birds never learned. They always came back, chasing a bug, singing their egg-laying songs, doing their business on our porch. They lived in their own little chicken world and didn’t care about anything else.

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Sometimes I’m a yard bird. I run around in my own little world, meeting my needs, focusing on whatever is right in front of me and being completely content. Whatever happens, happens. Then, I look back at the day, or the week, or the decade and wonder what happened. Where did the time go? What kind of mark did I leave on the world around me? Was it just a messy trail that someone else had to clean up?

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 In 1Corinthians 9:26-27, Paul tells us not to run aimlessly, but to run with a goal, a goal for pleasing Christ. Do I run daily toward Christ and what pleases Him, or do I zig-zag like the chickens, chasing whatever fancy that flutters across my path? Do I even know if what I’m doing is pleasing to my heavenly Father?
Paul reminds us in Philippians 3:13-14 that even if yesterday was a zig-zag day, today doesn’t have to be. Today we can push toward Christ, run straight toward Him in every little activity we take on. How do we do that? Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us not to lean to our own understanding. This means we need to be in God’s Word. Bible study, praying for God’s will in our lives, asking ourselves in every situation, where is God in what I’m doing?
I look at the life God has entrusted me with, the people He has graciously allowed me to interact with. Do I point them to Him in my actions, my words? Am I running with purpose? Is the purpose God’s purpose? If not, why not? He has given me life abundantly.
 

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