Look to the chickens for wisdom!

Do you have chickens? I do. They are incredibly wise creatures in their own way. They live according to their design and they never deviate from the simple existence they were created for. They wake up with the sun and go to to bed with its setting. For them this process is simple: They walk into their coop when it gets dark and walk out when the sun rises. That's it. Compare that to our sleeping habits (or lack thereof). And we think that we are wiser than such humble birds!

I work at a school and every morning a large number of the students respond to my question of how they're doing that morning with a lame "I'm tired. I didn't sleep much last night." It's almost always the same students! Look to the chickens for wisdom! But I digress.

I mention the simplicity of a chicken's life to bring up some important lessons they have taught me. Lesson one: They are absolutely, totally and completely helpless in almost every conceivable way. They can't fly but have wings to supplement a low jumping capability. They can barely run at all. They panic when endangered. Their only defense is to hide because even though they have beaks and claws, they are dull and useless and made for seeds, people! Lesson two: They fully depend on my protection. This simply means locking the door to their coop at night. If their door is not locked, the raccoons, opossums, coyotes and other night predators will come to eat them. And they will be successful in the hunt because they have nothing to fear.

Sadly, spiritually, we are exactly the same. We believe we can keep our souls safe simply by withdrawing into the shelter of whatever gives us comfort, whether it be our guns, families, religion, education, position, drugs, lusts, etc. Yet, if we place our hope in such places, we will be snatched from the comfort they provide in an instant or bound forever with their siren calls. This is simply because no good protector would ever lock his wards into such a house of cards. Only an enemy would ever seek to spring such an ambush to trap our hearts with those things that will pass away no matter how hard we hold on. Who is that enemy? We are told in scripture that "[Our] adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour."

My favorite chicken, eaten last week while I was gone on vacation

Where can we run to hide from such deceit? From what I wrote, if we place our hope in what we see then we are damned if we do (find peace in it) and damned if we don't. We are either trapped to rot in our comforts or chased out to be consumed by the predator. There is only one house in which to find safety and that is in the house of God! Psalm 91:1-2 states:

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress;
My God, in Him I will trust.” (Chapter linked above)

There is only one Man in whom to trust when we are aimlessly wandering and chained. Matthew 9:36 states, "But when Jesus saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd." (Again, incredible chapter linked above)

But Jesus wasn't just moved with compassion for we know He acted upon it. For our final hope, we are given Isaiah 61:1 in which the Lord says of God,

"He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound..." (Linked)

So I end by saying trust in the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and He shall keep you safe and give your soul liberty.

Never give up!

I wanted to give an update on my last post about my favorite chicken, Dot. She's able to stand up with a little more strength today and has, in fact, revealed her intuitive nature and desire to survive. Being immobile and finding it difficult to make it to the food dish she decided to conquer her problem in a direct manner.

She sat in the food dish! Go Dot!

She reminds me of a famous poster that I have seen many times of a Stork trying to eat a Bullfrog (not knowing the difference between species of animals in general and birds, reptiles and amphibians specifically, I would appreciate any corrections of the name of the species I labeled from whatever Zoologists, Ornithologists and Herepetologists who happen to come across this post).


This picture reminds me of Matthew 10:16 where it is written, "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves."

So, even in a lighthearted manner, it is good to encourage those believers who come across this post. There will come (or has come) a time for many of us in this life when we will be called to persevere in the face of extreme trials and in the face of death. I have searched up some of the words of God and man that speak to the heart of these troubles. God bless!

Psalm 44:18-22

Our hearts had not turned back; our feet had not strayed from your path. But you crushed us and made us a haunt for jackals and covered us over with deep darkness. If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, would not God have discovered it since he knows the secrets of the heart? Yet for your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.

Philippians 2:5-8

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature^a]"> God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!

Revelation 22:10

Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer... Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.

My favorite chicken, Dot.

Proverbs 12:10
"A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal."


Chickens are such helpless and adorable animals. My friends got Dot around the time I came to know the Lord six years ago, so we both had our true beginnings at about the same time. She had very white feathers in her young years and one brown dot on a wing. Thus, she got the name Dot. She has always been one of the first to run over to me when I stop by to say hi to "my girls" and often lets me pet her. She does this hilarious low-crawl/duck walk as the presses herself to the ground and tries to waddle around under my hand.

About a year ago she developed a large growth on her left breast and we were worried she was going to die, but she is a trooper and pulled through. Sadly, it has come back and she can barely stand up to get to the food and water dishes. I try to hand feed her in the enclosure but the other girls are jealous and voraciously attack the food in my hand. I've had to pick her up and take her out of the cage while cradling her swollen bosom in my hand to keep her from hurting. She lets me sit her in my lap while she takes a few nibbles at the greens I give her and then she falls asleep. I wish I could heal her and keep her alive forever.

One of the younger girls. As you can see, she looks crazy and she has this very retarded, throaty cluck so I call her "Crazy-eyes McCluck."

It's so strange for me to feel so much emotion for such a "worthless" creature. I mean, it's a chicken for Christ-sake! Still, I'm so troubled by my own helplessness and inability to keep her safe and well. She's probably going to die in the next few days and I have to watch her do it. I have to watch as she struggles to come say hi when I visit the cage. She stands up on her wobbly feet and takes a step or two before slowly sinking back down to earth on legs that no longer support her greatly diminished and pained frame. It hurts my heart.

I've come to see life and death in a slightly different light during all of this. When I picked Dot up and gently cradled her in my arms I understood to a new depth of my being God's love for His helpless creation. He cradles me in His arms when I am weak, feeds me when I am hungry, nurses me back to health when I am sick and comforts me in my distress. Apart from my understanding, He loves me when He owes me no such thing in my broken and dying state. At the same time, I owe Dot no debt of love as she slowly winds down her brief dance of life to face the eternity of death. Yet, God, who has the power of creation at His fingertips is able to breath life into bodily frames that are suffering from death. He breathed life into me so that I could experience the hope of the life to come. How could I not love a simple and needy animal like Dot when God gave life to a simple and needy creature like me?

Ironically, in a way, a dying chicken has been able to teach me a valuable truth about life, death and my Father in heaven who has walked me through every step of my short, 27 year journey. I know that because He loves me I am heading toward a destination that will never fail to bring me joy and peace because I will be with Jesus who healed me from my sin and saved me from the judgment it deserved. I hope that you, too, can develop a love for all of God's creation simply because and amazing God created and loves it.

Red-blooded men!

The other day I was quietly sifting through a jumble of emails that have been calling out my name to be read for many weeks now. It seems that ever since the Presidential election I have been unwilling to read much that comes my way through such means. Either that or my love affair with Facebook has taken me from my first (and much simpler) love of email. That aside, I am not here to talk about relationships. I'm here to talk about the night I realized that I was a man.

The previous sentence, without any context, may seem rather risque. Thus, allow me to elaborate upon the circumstance in which I found myself. You see, I had the window in the computer room open so that I could experience the benefits of fresh air while I tried to wade through the stifling number of unread emails. The result of this was that I was able to hear any number of night time sounds that wafted into my ear canals. Imagine my reaction when I heard frantic squabbling coming from the chicken coop my landlady keeps on her property.

Being a responsible man and realizing that the chickens had not been locked up for the night, I figured that the source of their squabbling must have been either a raccoon or possum. I ran out of the house as quickly as my feet could take me and called upon Josh, the son of my friend and landlady, to come out with me as fast as possible with a flashlight.

The chickens were splayed around their cage and outside of their coop in various stages of shock and fright. My favorite, whom I call "Crazy Eyes McCluck" because of her crazy eyes and strange cluck, was almost comatose as her legs were locked in the upright position and her breast and head were sagging to the ground. Her wings were drooping to the ground and she was shaking slightly. She was a pitiful sight to say the least.

My manly instinct to protect chicks kicked in at that moment and with the help of Josh we managed to herd the ladies back into their coop and lock them up. Pushing them into their coop almost felt like the game "Whack a Mole" with them trying to leave as quickly as you herded them in. Now, chicken herding is fun and should become a national sport much as sheep herding is in the British Isles (see YouTube video) but I was half-naked without a shirt when the neighboring dog sent up a sharp growl at an avocado tree that grows inside of the cage.



A lonely leaf fell to the ground as I slowly looked up to the sound of soft rustling. I had figured that whatever creature had attacked the girls was long gone. I couldn't have been more wrong... I whispered to Josh for his flashlight and investigated the tree in my vulnerable and half-naked state. The beam alighted upon two specks of reflective, shiny blackness. To my horror and amazement, I saw looking back at me the two eyes of a raccoon the size of a medium-sized dog.

It's hands had the dimensions of a small child's.


Josh "oohed" and "aahed" and wished for a stick so that he would have the ability to beat the coon out of the tree. This reminded me of the two spears I had brought back from Uganda and I ordered Josh back into the house to grab them so that we could stab the raccoon and get it to leave the chicks alone. Soon, with spears and flashlights in hand, we began a systematic stabbing of the tree as we had lost sight of the animal. After spearing various branches, leaves and avocados I finally found the guy again and gave it a medium thrust to the belly (not a killing blow). Now terrified itself, and put in its proper place, the coon scampered away.

At the top of my lungs I bellowed a war cry that shivered the timbers of every tree and shriveled the lips of every marauding creature in the vicinity. I thrust my spear in the air and wiped the coons blood in swirling patterns upon my face. I erected a truly massive bonfire outside of my animal hide tent and watched my shadow dance with me late into the night. I poured smooth libations down my gullet in ever greater quantities as the gods looked down upon me in amazement. How can this not be the night when I became a man?