Flying High

I love birds. They are beautiful, majestic and can do something I can’t – fly. I love them so much and find them so fabulous that I have owned many during the course of my life. Currently, I own a wonderful little Sun Conure named Captain Morgan. Well, it’s more accurate to say he owns me.

“Captain” is a small little guy from the parrot family. He is bright orange and yellow with green and blue on his wings and tail. He’s a conure but he thinks he’s a condor and he has the vocal chords to prove it.

I don’t have his wings clipped because he loves to zoom around the house flying when I let him out of his cage when I’m at home. He loves the freedom of flying. And I love to watch him fly. I can see the full color of his feathers and watch him as he charges about doing what he was built to do. (It brings my dog Gracie joy to as she tries to jump up and grab him but as he is generally 10 feet in the air Captain is quite safe.)

Recently Captain Morgan was sneezing a bit so off to his vet we went only to discover he had an upper respiratory infection. (Bird sneezes are devastatingly cute, by the way.) A course of oral antibiotics was ordered that would clear it up in a week or two. Trouble was I was going to have to give ‘ol Cap’t his liquid medicine twice a day for two weeks. Not an easy task when a bird has full flight.

To make my job easier the vet offered to clip a few feathers on each wing so Morgan would be easier to catch and wrap in a towel and medicate. Great idea, or so I thought.

Generally speaking clipping a bird's wings makes it harder for the bird to gain lift. The bird can usually glide a bit and it slows them down but the bird cannot gain altitude. Thus it is easy to catch them should they try an ill advised escape.

Not so much with my Captain. His clip job seemed to make him more aerodynamic. It actually made him faster and I think he made sharper turns and pivots. What was supposed to bring him down to earth, what I thought was an obstacle; he turned around and used his skills to exploit and use it to take him to greater heights. And I think he was having more fun than ever.

What the vet did for Captain, God did me. But while Captain recognized right away that his clipped wings didn’t mean he had to be grounded but instead he could fly better and faster, I did not learn my lesson so quickly.

God takes us through seasons of change or stillness or allows trouble to come all as part of our growth and walk with Him. There will be times when we are flying high and He will intentionally clip our wings. Not so He can watch us fall but so that we will draw closer to Him as we figure out that we can now actually fly better and faster than before.

I got my wings clipped pretty severally over two years ago. And for a while all I could focus on was what happened – losing my job. But I had to stop letting that define me. That is not who I was, it was just something that had to be dealt with. And while there were very dark days God had me in His hand the entire time taking me through my journey.

God promises that when He “clips” our wings that if we wait on Him, our strength will be renewed; we will mount up with “wings like eagles” and we shall run and not be weary and walk and not faint. (Is. 40:31) I for one can attest that I have more strength today than I ever thought I did two years ago before God started me down this road. Things I thought would wear me out or literally kill me did not. God is the only reason why.

If you have ever seen an eagle fly you know they very rarely flap their wings once aloft. Once airborne the eagle just rides the current, gliding ever higher and higher. Not struggling or straining to reach his soaring heights. That is what God is trying to do for us when he clips our wings and replaces them with the wings of eagles - watching us soar to glorious new heights in our full color splendor as He proudly rejoices.

No doubt clipping hurts. But sometimes that's the only way God can get us where He wants us to be. Doing what we were built to do. Flying high.

Captain better watch out, once I get the hang of my new wings I just might challenge him to a race.

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The Lyricist

I love singing along with the songs on the radio. If I turn the volume up loud enough I sound really good too. I am very bad at knowing the names of songs or who the group or singer is but regardless when I hear a song I know and love I can’t help but join the band.

I addition to getting the title of the song and the name of the band wrong from time to time I might also get the lyrics wrong. This is not much of a problem when I am alone in my car. In fact, I think that my lyrics are at times an improvement over some of the words coming out of my woofers and tweeters.

Where this does present a problem is in a group setting particularly when I am not aware of the fact that I am in fact singing the wrong words. Case in point, when I was a teenager I was on a family car trip through some western states one summer. Somewhere along the way we procured a copy of an England Dan and John Ford Coley cassette tape. (Remember tapes?)

It was a great album. Every song was terrific and made you just want to sing along, which thank you very much I did along with the rest of my family, parents included. That is of course until the song “I’d Really Love To See You Tonight” came on. We were somewhere in northern New Mexico having a fine family sing-a-long when in my best seventies hippie rocker I belt out “I’m not talking about the linen…”

Without warning I hear laughter coming at me from all sides (middle children like me always had to sit in the middle). The comments were flying “What did you say?? What was That? The linen? What does that even mean? It’s not linen you fool, its Moving In – I’m not talking about moving in.”

The kidding and ribbing was endless. And this was just from mom and dad – I don’t even want to get into what my brothers had to say. And oh, did I mention, my older brother had his girlfriend with us? Beyond humiliating. I tried to explain why I thought “linen” would have worked in the song but there were no buyers for the story I was selling.

I wanted to die. Well, for about two seconds, then I too thought it was hilarious. I cannot listen to that song and not hear “linen” try as I might to hear the right lyrics. And every time it brings a big smile to my face.

I would like to think I learned something from that little lesson – I did - I only sing in private now. However, that has not cured my “lyric” problem. In fact it happened just this week, and its only Tuesday.

I was singing a song – alone in my car. One I’ve heard and sung dozens and dozens of times. I turn it up each time I do and regularly sing along. Yesterday I was singing right along and was just so joyous as I belted out “heroes conquered the grave…”

Suddenly, I was back in that family car driving through New Mexico – “Heroes? What does that even mean? It’s not heroes you fool, its He Rose – He rose and conquered the grave!” I started laughing so hard at myself at this realization. Of course the song makes much more sense that way. When I pulled in to park I had to clean the mascara off my cheeks before I went inside. I know God was having a good ‘ol laugh at that one too.

But the more I think about it my version works just fine. My Hero did conquer the grave. Jesus is my Hero. He overcame death. Death. Don’t know about you, but I consider that a big damn deal. And He did it for me; foolish ‘ol me (and you).

My Hero, He rose. And because He did I get to conquer the world of my dreams. Now that is something I could really sing about.

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It's A Very Good Friday

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

John 3:16
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