In the thirteen plus years that I have lived at Jesus People USA, I
have on occasion come to points when I find myself asking, "Why am I living
here?" Most times that question is asked at times of frustration or irritation
with other fellow members. My thought process inevitably ends with asking
God, "Yeah, why am I here?" For thirteen years I've been satisfied with
His response. "Because I haven't told you to go." Simple obedience to God
is good, but God not only wants me to do His will but to thrive in it.
Recently I was reminded of that in the form of a pet canary plastered
to a glue board.
As my wife Amy and I closed the door to our room to go down to lunch,
we heard our neighbor frantically upset that her daughter had opened the
door to the bird cage. As I approached their door to offer help, the mother
came out crying, glue board in hand, with the helpless canary struggling
to break free of its sticky demise. My neighbor looked at me through tears
and asked if I could help.
As I looked at this bizarre scene of feathers and glue, a crying mother
and daughter, for some reason I put my hands out and said, "I'll take care
of it."
What, am I crazy? I'm qualified to pull engines out of cars, not little
dainty creatures off of industrial goo. As I headed to my room with the
victim, one of my pastors happened to be walking by and joined me in the
rescue. My wife quickly got on the phone and called one of the ladies in
the house who knew more about birds than any of us. We gathered around
like a bunch of doctors huddled over our patient. Slowly and tediously
we worked the bird free over what seemed an eternity but in reality was
about fifteen minutes.
One might look at the freed bird as the triumph of this picture. Sure,
I'm thrilled when I can help an animal in distress, but what I'm proudest
of was being there at the moment of crisis for my neighbors. Even if the
bird had died, the bigger picture is that our neighbors didn't have to
face it alone.
Sometimes it's not as dramatic as this. Sometimes it's as simple as
giving a listening ear or a comforting prayer.
Strange what can bring people together.
Stranger yet is that a bird on a glue board can answer such a big question
as "Why am I here?"
First published in Cornerstone (ISSN 0275-2743),
Vol. 28, Issue 116 (1999), p. 23
© 1999 Cornerstone Communications, Inc.
Electronic version may contain
minor changes and corrections from printed version.
