Hammer and Nail

I like Simon and Garfunkel.  It brings out a skippy, dancing side of me. I like the lyrics, well most of them - they fire my imagination. How about, "I'd rather be a hammer than a nail."?  Think about it!  If a hammer and nail had feelings I would definitely want the hammer's role.  A nail is but a small slip of metal, banged again and again until it is lost from sight into the wooden piece of furniture. A nail would view the hammer as a bully, a relentless enemy who drives it into submission, pounding it again and again until the hammer's will is done.  The hammer returns unscathed to its place and glories in a job well done.

I have come to praise God for the lessons of the hammer and the nail; times of apparent set back, illness, loss of friends, folk leaving the church and barren seasons in sharing the gospel. Each day can feel like repeated hammer blows that leave me frustrated, angry and tempted to give up.

But when I look to the carpenter, hope stirs my fragile emotions. The nail and the hammer are both held in God's sovereign hands.  Jesus knows what he is doing.  There is a greater purpose, a divine building, something bigger than I have ever dreamed of, being accomplished with this one nail.  As A W Tozer said, "It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until he has hurt him deeply." 

To any reader in pain or doubt, stand firm. God is working his purposes out and you, dear child of His, are safe in his wonderful hands.

Soaring with eagles or squawking like parrots

My neighbour has a parrot, a vicious bird that bites and squawks and is generally bad tempered, scowling at you from the safety of his cage. His one redeeming feature is that he speaks: words, phrases and swearing screech from his mouth, repetitions of sounds he has heard clearly mimicked as he swings contentedly on his perch.

Contrast this encounter with another I had last year, that of a young golden eagle. Tethered to his handlers arm, this magnificent bird with its keen eyes wanted to fly. It stretched out its wide wings, tugged cords with its sharp beak, restless and driven by that inborn desire to soar and hunt.  It wanted to fly, to be free, to glide and find fresh quarry and mountains, to be Lord of all it surveys.

Reflecting on these birds, I am aware we are lacking eagles in the church but have an abundance of parrots. Leaders content to sit safely on their evangelical perches and repeat the latest tweet, blog or book content with parrot-like gusto. Parrots like the predictable and are easily satisfied with a few seeds and loud admiration.

The church is short on eagles, those leaders who fly; folk brave enough to break free of material cages, financial safety nets, religious traditions and to soar in wonder and worship in the Holy Spirit, eagle-eyed to God's word, open to new perspectives and fearless in their desire to reach new horizons.

We need more eagles: eagle writers, eagle prophets and evangelists, eagle pastors and eagle church planters. 

Parrots are colourful fun birds to keep in cages.  Eagles need to be released, and if you are an eagle, what are you doing on that perch?