I was driving home the other day and all of a sudden a
really large bird swoops down in the grass to the side of my car and grabs a
snake. It seems effortless. The bird never stops flying. It just rises in front
of my car and flies away with its prize tightly grasped in its claws. I am
certain this thing happens all the time but very few times have I witnessed
such a feat in person. There were several thoughts that ran through my mind.
The first being, “Dang that bird has a snake!” Followed by, “Dumb bird you
better fly or I am going to take you and your bounty out with this car.” But
those thoughts aren't very inspiring so on to the “meaty” thoughts. I thought
how I want to be the bird. I want to focus in on my goals, dive wholeheartedly
into them and then glide off into the horizon with my tangible sense of
accomplishment grasped tightly in my hands. However, I think more often than
not I feel like the snake. Going about my day none the wiser to the talons
about to carry me off into something completely different than what I had
planned. Now if we follow that snake it is more than likely headed for a brutal
ending and praise God my life doesn't feel quite so certain for doom. But I
want to be the bird not the snake. The predator; not the prey. The thing is
that we don’t become the bird without some effort or some driving force. No
matter how easy it appeared to me, it didn't just happen for that bird. There
was something driving her. Hunger maybe or a need to provide quite literally
set that bird in motion. What can I do today to set things in motion? What can
you do? Am I doing something to “go after” things or am I just allowing things
to happen? Don’t be the snake!
It is often times intimidating to put yourself out there. To be brave and bold in a world that does not feel safe. Yet we are so interconnected in our humanity. There are emotions and experiences that we all share even when we feel as if no one else gets us or that we are all alone. The "what ifs" are often the obstacles that hold us back from living a full and abundant life, those restraints on relationships from reaching their full potential and the thoughts that hinder us from being our true self. There is a fairly new country song by Kane Brown called What Ifs and it addresses this exact thing when it comes to a relationship between and man and woman. The woman is not willing to give the relationship a try because what if it doesn't work out, what if she gets hurt, what if... The guy responds when what ifs as well but from a completely different perspective. What if this is the right thing, what if it is more than imagined, what if everything does work out? I wa...
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