Yesterday morning a bird
flew into my kitchen. It wasn’t a big bird, it was one of those small sweet
brown birds that are common to Dar-es-Salaam and at first it didn’t bother me.
But after a bit, the bird’s panicked fluttering got to me, and well, it was
dropping bird pellets all over the room, so I tried waving my arms at it to
shoo it out, but, jamaani, I’m a little short and the Kitchen ceiling is high,
and BB (BROWN BIRD) just checked me out from way up there like I was a nutty
woman and entertainment for him. Eventually, I got a broom and holding it
upside down with my arms held up over my head, I waved the broom around in the
air, trying to guide BB back-out through the open door.
This at first just
resulted in me chasing BB all over the Kitchen, me getting tired and irritated
at this unwanted cardio-exercise first thing in the morning, BB just panicking
and fluttering ever more wildly round and round my Kitchen coz he just didn’t
get it – infact, he kept flying straight into the glass panel above the Kitchen
door instead of ducking and flying OUT through the wide open door. Anyway,
eventually, at the point when my arms were screaming in pain, BB ducked his
head and flew out the door into freedom, back to where he belonged.
As I put the broom down
and rested my achy-achy arms, I thought, ‘hey, this is what the Lord goes
through for us!’
You see, we often fly full
speed into situations and rooms where we shouldn’t be.
And we settle, for a time.
Then we realize that , hey, we’re in the wrong place, and although, as
Believers, we’re not on the ground slithering with the snakes, we’re up there
flying on Eagles Wings, we’re still in the WRONG PLACE. And at the back of our minds, we
wonder, why is the Lord making us uncomfortable here? So, we watch Him, we’re
entertained by God stuff, in our Churches, in our homes, we entertain ourselves
with Christian TV, Christian Radio, Christian Books, CCM, Christian Friends, we
watch God.
Then, God moves, and the
question in our minds becomes: Why is it that it feels like every time I settle
onto a perch, the Lord waves a broom at me to get out of here? It could be
anything – like being in the wrong job and nothing is going right despite all
your talents, your drive, your enthusiasm and your God Entertainments. It could
be a project that you’ve volunteered for and you’ve thrown in money and time
and your entire SELF into, but it’s still not coming together and you’re
unsettled. It could be a good deed gone wrong somehow, whatever situation it
is, the Lord is waving that broom under you and trying to guide you out, shoo you out, of that room – but, you
keep flying full speed into the window above the door and bashing your brains
out in utter frustration. You finally get-it, understand fully what the Lord is
whispering to you, or shouting to you, you finally realize that you’re flying
in the wrong room, but every single time you make a panicked move to leave, you’re
still trying to fly out through the glass panel above the door.
At one point I seriously
felt sorry for BB. How long, I wondered, before he got IT? DUCK DUDE, bend your
head, lower yourself, fly LOWer!!
For the The Key to flying
out of our confinement is humility. The bible says in Deuteronomy 8:3
He humbled you, causing you to hunger and
then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to
teach you that man does not live on
bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.
So, we are flying High on our ‘we are Believers’
belief, often forgetting that we should live our lives, lead our lives, not on
the fact that we’re saved and
sanctified, but on EVERY WORD THAT COMES FROM THE MOUTH OF THE LORD. That’s a
lot of Bible Reading.
The Bible also promises us
in 2 Samuel 22:28 that ‘You
save the humble, but your eyes
are on the haughty to bring them low’. I went into my dictionary, and found out
the meaning of ‘humble’:
humble |ˈhəmbəl|
adjective ( humbler , humblest )
1 having or showing a modest or low estimate of one's own
importance : he was humble about his stature as one of rock history's most
influential guitarists.
•
(of an action or
thought) offered with or affected by such an estimate of one's own importance :
my humble apologies.
Note to self: I have stature as a Child
of the Living God, but in my thoughts and deeds, I should show a modest or low
estimate of my own importance. My goodness! That’s a tough call!! Ama? It means
listening to a lot of people who may be far less talented than I am, or may be
my junior, or may earn less than me, or may be of a different race or country,
or simply being humble to people I actively dislike…
And it especially means being Humble to
the Lord.
But if I do not, if we do not, humble
ourselves before the Lord and our fellow Christians, then we shall be like that
Bird In My Kitchen, forever bashing our heads against the clear glass panel
above the open door, wondering why we’re not settled. A promise from God is
that, when we duck, and only when we duck our heads, will many of our
frustrations cease and we can fly out of our frustrating confining boundaries
and out into the freedom that the Lord really really wants us to be in.
And remember, He’s as frustrated as we
are by our confinement. Just as you would be if you had a bird in your kitchen.
So, if you feel the Lord waving a broom around under you, keep 2 Chronicles
7:14 in mind:
will humble themselves and pray and seek my face
and turn from their
wicked ways,
then I will hear from heaven,
and I will forgive their sin
and
will heal their land.
Nyakio
Munyinyi © 2012
