I have 8 chickens. The "Ladies", as I call them, are well behaved for the most part. However, I have two that are renegade chickens. They like to escape the confines of their very spacious yard and into my back yard where they aren't safe with the others. The leader of the two is very head strong and doesn't like to have her demands stifled. Today that changes. Today I go out with my fishing net, catch her and her subordinate and clip their wings. No, it's not bad for them and doesn't hurt. Once the wings are clipped, no more flying the coup! Christians are like that as well. We are safe in the confines when we are allowing God to live through us. Step outside this role and we are in trouble. Thus we also need to have our wings clipped. That comes about in various ways. The most obvious way is when we are caught in our sin by another person. When that happens we go through the ritual of humility, forgiveness, and repentance...if we are smart. If we don't we separate ourselves even further from God and continue to reap the consequences of our acts. The Holy Spirit has been called the hound of heaven. There is a reason for that. The Bible tells us that when we are saved that Christ will never leave nor forsake us. That's reassuring! The Holy Spirit goes about drawing us back into the safe zone with any number of devices. Why? Because God loves us and will leave the 99 to go and search for the one who is lost.
My chickens talk with me. They have specific talk for wanting food or water, specific talk when they lay an egg (their song), and specific talk when they are upset with me. I do the same when I talk with God and you probably do as well. We are not so different from my Ladies. Only we don't have our heads chopped off and get eaten. I'm thankful for that. After the clipping of their wings they will be mad! I understand this but know that sometimes the Lord clips my wings as well...out of love. Yes, I love my chickens and their eggs taste great! Two of them are definitely wanting to be free range chickens! I want to be a free range Christian. Yet, I know the dangers of being a free anything. The biggest danger in freedom and free will is our becoming mired in the mud that is alongside the road we are to travel. Stinking, thick and unforgiving mud. The first step into the mud is the first step away from the love and security of God. When my two renegade Ladies leave the safety of the pen they also expose themselves to the hawk that flies above or the coyote that lives in the acreage at the far end of my property. Here, again, we find ourselves exposed to the dangers of the world. Flying the coup isn't a very good thing to do. Being human we can't do anything about that. However, being dead to self and alive to Christ is a totally safe place to be.
I tell the renegade chickens that if they keep this up they will be chicken stew. They don't like that. I don't want to become something that is destroyed by the world, chewed up and spit out as well. You too? I hope so. Keeping myself aligned with Christ requires only one thing. Stay dead to self. With me being dead to self Christ is alive in me there is peace beyond understanding even with all that is going on around me. Many times that peace has caused people to ask me why I'm not anxious, panicking, or running around like a chicken with it's head cut off. That allows Christ to minister to these people and sometimes that peace is transferred to them. The good news is that the Christian is never more than this one step away from peace when they wander. The good news is that we can return and be forgiven. Christ died for ALL of my sins. He died for all of your sins as well. You might be a renegade chicken right now. You are only a step away from either being stew or forgiven. It's always your choice.
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