Bird Bombs

It was a beautiful day yesterday to sit outside under the trees and have a nice, leisurely lunch behind the student union on the MSU campus. So, that's what my writing group and I did. We were conversing, laughing, sharing...and then Lauren noticed something on her binder. Looking up at me, she noted the same foreign substance trickling down the right side of my bald head. Immediately, everyone recognized what it was: a gravitationally-delivered gift from some fiendish bird in the tree above. Yes, I was pooped on.

After having a few more good laughs about it, we wisely moved one table over to one that had an umbrella to protect us from any subsequent bombings. Later, I spent a little time pondering what provoked this devilish creature of the air to do such a thing to me; I can only surmise that my winged nemesis felt life had cut him a raw deal somehow, so he had decided to pay that trespass forward. He also must have known that I was the forgiving type who had no interest in climbing a large tree to return the favor.

What stands out to me most about the incident is that I had no idea what had happened. Sure, I'd felt something hit my head, but at no point did I entertain the idea that I may have just served as nature's toilet. I simply assumed it was a drop of water...from the rain...that had happened like three days earlier...(what was I thinking?). Thankfully, I had a group of good friends to kindly and gently break the truth to me.

While not a perfect comparison, this got me thinking again about how important it is that we, as Christians, live in community with one another. Too often, we falsely assume the Christian life is to be lived alone; that the cross we bear is to be shouldered but not shared; that we can look out for ourselves; that we don't need to be open, honest, and vulnerable to other believers. The writer of Ecclesiastes speaks of this when he says "Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him-a threefold cord is not quickly broken."

Solomon, the man who had wisdom beyond wisdom, here notes that we cannot afford to be lone rangers. On our own, we are set up for failure. I've seen this in my own life on numerous occasions. I'm prone to overlook dangerous pitfalls and cannot always see the sins that reside in the "blind spots" of my life. Worse yet, if I have the presence of mind to recognize the situation, on my own I have no one to walk with me through it. It ends up as if I were in quicksand with no one around to pull me out.

No person with any sense would willingly let their child wander alone in dangerous places, yet the world is a dangerous, tough place that so many Christains try to navigate in solitude. Pridefully, we attempt to go it alone, telling ourselves to "pull ourselves up by our bootstraps," all the while missing the truth that it is not weakness to admit that we need each other; it's wisdom.

The older I get, the more thankful I am that God has a)impressed upon me the necessity of community and b)provided wonderful brothers and sisters in Christ to do life with. Without them, I'd surely be the guy walking around with bird poop on his head.