Throwbacks from Facebook: The Birds and the...Yeah Just the Birds

Sin is such an annoyance isn't it? Too many times I can relate to Paul when he speaks about doing what he doesn't want to do and not doing what he wants to do in Romans 7: 14 - 20. I've heard this analogy more than once and I've deliberated on it so here are some of my thoughts.
Genesis 4: 6 - 7
⁶ Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? ⁷ If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."

The Birds and the...Yeah Just the Birds

Analogy
It's natural for the bird to fly over your head but don't let it make a nest there.

Thoughts
Bird - sinful thought
I've heard this from several different people regarding sinful thoughts. The idea is that it's natural to have sinful thoughts because we're human and imperfect. Having a sinful thought isn't sinning. The thing is, sinning is purposely allowing the thought to rest in our minds. Matthew 5:28 says that if we so much as look at a woman (or man) lustfully we have already committed adultery in our hearts. From this, we can see that sinning starts in your mind. Now this all is common knowledge to the average Christian so I'm not even going to spend anymore time talking about this. What I am going to talk about, however, is the analogy itself and how its meaning goes beyond its normal usage.

Expansion
Let us look first at how the bird chooses where to nest. First of all, the bird is going to choose somewhere that it can get food easily. Point to note here is that we should not allow our minds to become somewhere these birds will think is comfortable. Their plan is to feed off your mind and if it can give them food then they'll try to nest.

I'll digress for a bit to delve into my thoughts on thoughts.
1 Corinthians 2:11-12
11For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.

So as children of God, the devil can not know our thoughts "just so" because we don't answer to the spirit of the world, we have the Spirit of God so only God can know our thoughts directly. The devil, however, is rather cunning and can get a good idea of what our thoughts are like by the way we act. That way, he can attack who he thinks are suitable hosts with his birds.

Next, we should look at the process of nest-building by these birds. Realise that nest building doesn't happen all at once. Once the bird identifies a suitable environment in which to nest, it's going to begin the building process. You can tell that a nest is being built when you notice that the bird is flying around a bit more often. It's going to rest for a few seconds at first...then a bit longer next time. Before you even realise, the nest has been built and you're in trouble. The question here is, "can I destroy an incomplete nest so I don't get to the stage of nesting?" Personally, I don't think there's anyway we, ourselves, can get rid of the nest completely. I figure that we can destroy what's on top of our head, but often times we can't reach what's at the base all tangled up in our hair (baldies please bear with me here...hah pun...here...hair...ok). We'd need a real good Hairdresser/Barber to get out what we can't reach. More on that later though.

So now the bird has its nest on your head and we're being plagued with this chronic sin. Two dangerous things can happen here and they're by no means dependent on each other.

1. The bird can lay eggs
If this happens, then we find that the family of birds are going to need even more food than what you were giving before. Unless we take steps, the birds are going to keep growing and feeding off your thoughts which, by now, have become a breeding ground. What follows this is that the parent bird decides that the nest is getting too small for them all, so it's time for the babies to learn to fly. You see what's happening here? At this point, we've actually become sources for birds that are going to go try to nest on other people's heads. Your friends, family members, even random passerbys who happen to witness you feeding the bird. What a bad state we've found ourselves in.

2. Other birds come to stay in the nest
Now that there's a nest in our heads, what's stopping other birds from coming to join the first one? The nest might be a bit small, but all that's required is a bit of an expansion by the newcomer. The bigger the nest gets, the more accommodating it is to new birds to come and rest. Your head then becomes a den of iniquity, housing all these sinful thoughts which will inevitable be manifested in your lifestyle. We need to get rid of these birds though.

Now, it's easy to shoo the birds for a bit, especially right after you feed them since they won't need food too much right then, unless of course they've developed a really big appetite that's being fed way too much. So we shoo the birds and they go away for a time, but the nest is still there. Before we know it, they're hungry again and they come flying back. Constant shooing just isn't practical. We need to get rid of the nest too. As I said before, we can try to destroy the nest. This might even incite violence from said birds...especially when they've gotten comfortable, started a family, had over friends. We can formulate "strategies" to combat the thoughts ourselves. These will eventually fail, however, since the foundation of the nest is still in place. All the bird has to do again is spend a little time to build back the nest and we're back at square one.

We need an effective plan to get rid of these birds. We start by starving the birds of food.
Philippians 4:8
8Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Next we need to stop trying to destroy the nest ourselves and take it to Someone who knows how to get into the nooks and crannies of our dirty hair. So we take our minds to Jesus who gets rid of EVERYTHING. Note though, that He doesn't just take it away like that. It takes time just like it took time to build the nest. We normally find that we've grown to like the birds and have a soft spot for them and can't stand to see them die so we'll often miss our appointments with the Barber so we can feed them..."just a bit" right? We need to be diligent in getting rid of these birds even though we feel like we can't...even the babies! Once our head is back in order, we're ready to go again and keep doing that Jesus thing.

Maybe the bird we need nesting in our heads is the same one that rested on Jesus when He was baptised.

~Xavier Lloyd.