“Chickadees
are very curious. See if
one will come
to you.”
Heeding
Sara’s
suggestion, I put my hand out, palm up, and waited. Within a few seconds, a
little bird landed on
a nearby branch, cocked his head and looked at looked at me. Then, in a move so quick that
you could
hardly anticipate it, he jumped off the branch, flew over and
landed on my
hand. He was only there
for a second or
two, but those few seconds have stayed in my mind for weeks.
Here
is
the thing that I keep thinking about: I could not have forced that
encounter. Calling that
bird in would
not have worked. Chasing
it through the
trees would have only scared it off.
Once
the bird landed on my hand, it was only there as long as it wanted
to be. I could not have
caught it or kept it if I
had tried. In fact, any
effort on my
part to make that circumstance happen would have meant that it
would not have happened
at all.
Some
things
only come to you because you are open to receiving them.
We
live
in a time that emphasizes our ability to control things. “Live life to its fullest”
and “Go after what
you want” are the mottos that dominate our thinking. We are trained to ask, “What
will make me
happy” and then we structure our lives around the acquisition of
whatever we
think will satisfy us.
Sadly,
though,
the more I watch people living their “best life” the more
convinced I am that
your best life is not in your control.
The
Book
of Ecclesiastes says, “There is a time for everything, and a
season for
every activity” (3:1) and then it goes on to list things like
birth and death,
planting and harvesting, tearing down and building. In other words, it is not all
building,
harvest or birth. God is
going to take
us through both good and bad. Therefore,
happiness
is not just about making our dreams come true. Rather, it is found by giving
up our need to
control everything and learning to find God’s presence all of
life’s
circumstances.
The best things in life are not
acquired by
grasping at them.
Those blessings come
only to
those who quietly, but expectantly, hold their hands open and
wait.
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