How To Catch a Bird

 

There are many ways to catch a bird, I could go on and on about how to do it.

But the classical method is the box method.

Basically, you attach a long string to a stick and support it vertically under a box with a little bird food there, such that the box is raised by the stick at one end. Once the bird walks in, you just pull the string and the box falls over the bird and covers it.

When I was a child I would spend hours and hours trying to catch birds that way. I would wait and wait until I gave up with no success because, birds are very clever animals. Unless it is your lucky day, no bird would just walk into a trap just like that.

So in order to fool it and lead it in, you have to place a long trail of food from a long way off and all the way into the trap. The bird would start picking on the food from where it thinks it is safe, and it would blindly sing, dance and eat its way right into the box.

By the time it reaches the trap it cannot even notice that it is in danger because it is just too absorbed in the food and it is not looking around.

Why am I writing about birds, what has that got to do with lifestyle?

Well, it is because, the same way we catch birds is exactly the same way the devil puts us in bondage. No christian would willingly allow themselves to be lost, but the devil is cunning, and he uses little things to blind us until we are lost

Many times you would ask yourself, how did my life get to this point? I used to be much stronger than this…

And the truth is, you start falling long before you even notice it.

What I’m trying to say is, as Christians, we ought to be watchful. We have to pay attention to the kind of music we listen to, the kind of movies we watch and sometimes, even the kind of people we associate with and the kind of foods we consume.

Our thoughts determine the kind of people we become, so we must closely guard what goes into our minds.

“Do not see how close you can walk upon the brink of a precipice and be safe. Avoid the first approach to danger. The soul’s interests cannot be trifled with. Your capital is your character. Cherish it as you would a golden treasure. Moral purity, self-respect, a strong power of resistance, must be firmly and constantly cherished. There should not be one departure from reserve; one act of familiarity, one indiscretion, may jeopardize the soul in opening the door to temptation, and the power of resistance becomes weakened.” EG White, Adventist Home page 404.

Matthew 26:41 Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation

Pic by National Geographic