Maybe its because I’ve just spent the past several weeks discussing Existentialism with my grade 12 drama class, and attended an incredible conference over the weekend that challenged every one of my comfort zones as a Christian… but it feels like I am looking at the world so very differently these days…
While in Stellenbosch last weekend, I spent an hour or two walking about Spier Wine Farm and ended up behind the bird sanctuary there. Now please understand, I am in no way judging or criticising this place; I have no idea why the birds are there or what has happened to them to end up in the aviaries – I am sure there must be a good reason. But, while walking, I saw a couple of vultures (and other birds of prey) homed in really big aviaries, sitting on a fake branch – all turned to face outwards.
(Please excuse my really bad iPhone photo). While I was looking at them, a falcon or smaller bird of prey flew past and sat in a tree behind me. It was free and doing what these birds are created to do: hunt and fly and generally be magnificent. I saw the vultures crane their necks to watch it. And I saw a picture of Life.
As Christians, are we not called to live lives of Freedom (John 8:36) and Abundance (John 10:10)? And yet, how often do we remain restricted within our man-defined value systems and submit to patterns of behaviour that render us a shadow of what and who we could be? Please understand my heart in this: I am not saying church is a cage and we’re all trapped within it. Being part of God’s spiritual family is a good thing; a really good thing. I am talking about the religious mindsets that we fall into that limit our perspective of who we are created to be in Christ – the freedom He paid for, and the authority we have in His name.
Is it just me that feels there is so much more to life than our weekly routines? More to life with Jesus than being a good person, going to church meetings and reading my Bible every day; trapped within our religious spirit routines? As an eagle is created to soar on the wind thermals, are we not created to soar with the Holy Spirit, living lives that glorify God’s greatness because none of it makes sense in the natural or through human logic? Am I alone in thinking like this? I want the extraordinary; I want to be amazed at God’s Goodness and workings in my life – how His plans for me leave me in awe of Him.
Seeing those vultures in their cage caused my spirit and heart to weep for today’s churches – so many are filled with eagles in the spirit, living like budgies in their cages and completely unaware of what they’ve been created (redeemed) to become. I’m not even speaking about spiritual giftings or stepping into ministries to serve; I’m simply seeing depths of intimacy with Jesus that get left unexplored… opportunities to reach greater heights in our relationship with Him, abandoned for the comfort and safety of a fake branch in a man-made cage. If Christians are not living lives with meaning (and that meaning being utterly Jesus), how can we argue that Mr Nietzsche was wrong in saying ‘God is dead’? How will the world know that God can do the extraordinary through very ordinary beings? Do we even know the extraordinary heights God is inviting us to soar to – and are we brave enough to accept that invitation, when it means leaving the cages for open skies? I don’t know about you, but I look around me and desperately want (need!) to rise above the pettiness and ugliness of the world and its systems of fear and corruption and anger… I’m choosing Faith, Hope and Love; all of which are only truly found in Jesus.
It’s time we fly like eagles.
Living with Joy 