Once upon a time, there was a beautiful cardinal, who busied himself, each day, tapping on the kitchen window of a very nice family's home. Without fail, the red bird would start his noisemaking in the morning and keep up his work for several hours a day. It certainly wasn't that the very nice family kept their windows so incredibly clean that the bird couldn't spot the glass. And the nice family chose not to entertain the superstition, which believes that a bird pecking at a window means death for someone inside the home. No, instead, they found a more palatable explanation using Google that this was likely the cardinal believing he was fighting another bird, who he saw invading his territory. Day after day, the sound of his painful mission resonated throughout the house as the determined bird repeatedly slammed his head into his reflection. Impressively, he'd kept up this tireless fight for over a year despite the very nice family's efforts to shoo him away.
A few months after the pecking began, the very nice family adopted a dog, who was not unlike a goat in that she loved to eat things. All manner of things. It mattered not what kind of things. The abridged version of her diet included, but was not limited to, baseball covers, water bottles, turtles, SOS pads, moss, berries from bushes, moles, shoe laces, wrappers, Coke cans, flower bulbs, stuffing from her bed, pine straw, and a go-to favorite, potpourri. Despite being angelic in appearance, the dog, who liked to eat all things, was never allowed to roam free in the home of the very nice family without supervision for fear that she would deconstruct and devour its contents.
Often times, her consumption of inedible and non-digestible items would lead to stomach discomfort and, ultimately, brightly colored dog excrement decorating the nice family's lawn. While the kaleidoscope-like piles appeared unnatural, they did offer a, somewhat, festive touch to the yard, especially as the Easter season drew near. Sometimes, however, the unknown substances didn't make it all the way through the digestive system. But, thankfully, when the foreign objects didn't sit well, the very nice family would hear the telltale rhythmic coughing, which alerted them to get the dog, who liked to eat all things, outside before she could heave up the always fascinating array of colorful items. Items which had proved to be too difficult a task for the toughest of digestive enzymes.

One day, the very nice family's dog, who liked to eat all things, scratched on the door as she was ready to come inside from her afternoon rounds. Upon opening the door, the very nice family was aghast to see their dog coming in with a feathered gift between her teeth. A deceased cardinal of which the dog, who liked to eat all things, was so proud. The dog was quite perplexed by the very nice family's unjoyful reaction and feverish attempts to wrestle the red-winged corpse from her jaws. And, while no one in the nice family was an ornithologist, they were certain the dearly departed was, indeed, the window pecking bird.....a belief that was validated in the days following as the tapping suddenly grew silent.

Perhaps the bird had died of natural causes and had simply fallen to the ground. Or, perhaps, the shelter dog was so incredibly intelligent that she'd picked up cues that the very nice family was aggravated by the pecking and set out to hunt the source of their irritation. But, the more likely explanation seemed to be that the brightly-colored, feathered creature had stunned itself in its fight with the glass; making himself an easy prey for the orally fixated canine. Whatever the sequence of events, the dog, who liked to eat all things, was more than happy to receive the Lord's bounty and test its digestibility.

The moral of this short story is that, well, I'm not sure what it is. But, sometimes, as silly as self-inflicted problems look in the animal world, I can see myself in that clueless bird and that stubborn dog of ours. How often do we inflict pain and problems on ourselves? Fighting old strongholds, skewed priorities, insecurities, fears, or bad habits that end up hurting us, every time. No matter how often we butt heads with our own human inclinations and character flaws, we seem to be slow to learn and must look pretty silly to God on the other side of the glass. Even if others try to tell us or even when we've had similar stomach-churning experiences before, we may still continue with the same old behaviors, which result in the same predictable consequences- leaving us looking just as ridiculous as Ruby hacking up a Nerf dart or a flip flop strap...…..or a fishing worm or tufts of tennis ball fur.

But, we can "be transformed by the renewing of your mind." (Romans 12:2) When our minds and our thoughts are under God's influence and not fixated on our own endeavors, battles, and appetites, we can become more productive for Him and less of a headache to ourselves.....and others. We can continue to peck at things that are temporal, fight the same futile battles, feed the same appetites, and react to the world instinctually, but God calls us to be different. To think differently. To react differently. To prioritize differently. We can find God's will for us in those places of separation.


(I do have one quick note. I have new Facebook and Instagram buttons on my blog sidebar, which will take you straight to my Muffin Top social media pages if you'd like to follow me and my most fascinating, oh, so interesting self.)

Y'all have a great day!