It was a breezy, sunny day as I sat on an old wooden bench beside the lake in Mt. Dora. I was fascinated by the struggling birds flying above the rippling water.
The birds flying against the wind were flapping like crazy. Even with all their flapping, they hardly inched forward. All that striving - yet they never got any closer to their destination. As tiredness overtook them and the flapping of wings slowed, they were blown backwards. One even did a nosedive for the water as he struggled to gain control of his wings and begin again the constant flapping.
Other birds were flying in the direction the wind was blowing. They barely needed to flap their wings. Most of the time they just spread them out and floated as the wind carried them along. There was no struggle, no working and fighting, or plummeting downwards, or being pushed backward.
How often are we like the struggling birds flying against the wind? - Always struggling. Feeling like we are working so hard but never getting anywhere. Watching our lives take nose dives. We begin to break down. Life becomes overwhelming. We don’t know how to handle the problems that come our way. We start plummeting under the pressure, working harder to keep our heads above water.
The birds flying with the wind weren’t struggling. They were just “going with the flow.” In fact they were speeding forward at an accelerated rate and not even trying. They were at peace, at rest, as they glided and soared above the problems going on beside them and below them.
The birds gliding and soaring and going with the flow, above the turmoil below, are like the higher thoughts and ways of God. Those birds flying and struggling against the wind are often like the thoughts and ways of men, leading into all sorts of problems.
God, who formed the mountains and created the winds, reveals his thoughts to us. And his ways and his thoughts are on a much higher plane than ours. But we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. After accepting Jesus as your Savior and Lord, this transformation begins to take place as we read and hear God’s Word. Becoming closer to him, we become more apt at understanding his thoughts and applying his ways to our own lives. (Amos 4:13, Isaiah 55:9, Romans 12:2, and 2 Corinthians 3:18)
Let the wind represent the leading of the Holy Spirit; let it represent the ways of God. Do you want to continue struggling, plummeting, treading water, fighting the wind; determined to do your own thing, go your own way? Or do you want peace and rest, and the ability to rise above the problems that come and pass through your life? Then flow with the wind; following the leading of the Holy Spirit, the ways of God, and the example of Jesus. Find peace and rest, soaring above the problems of life, as you go with the flow.
