Act & Relax

There was a bird in our attic this morning. My wife was not okay with this. The bird was not okay with this. Because of these two factors, I was not okay with this.

I don't know how the bird got in the attic, but I knew he wasn't getting out the same way. He was trapped - and frantic. I'm not sure if he was frantic before my wife saw him, but he was certainly frantic once he knew that we knew that he was there. He was flying all around the main room of the attic, hurling himself into the windows and looking for some way out.

We know next to nothing about Elijah's background. He was a Tishbite, from Tishbe. That's all we get. From relative obscurity he bursts onto the scene and makes crazy statements to king Ahab. (Crazy until those statements are proved true.) From out of nowhere, Elijah is suddenly in the spotlight. Everybody knows about him now - and most of those people are out for his head.

Elijah responds relying on God. He doesn't go running all over the place, he doesn't criss cross the countryside. He sits and waits and hides. More importantly he relies on God. For food, for water, for what to do next - and he is safe.

I got one of the windows open (only the bottom of this particular window opens) and eventually the bird found his way out, but not after a number of bumps and bruises (do birds bruise?) along the way.

Of course the bird went crazy. But, that doesn't mean we have to. That's what faith is - trust when things get weird or crazy or scary. Elijah trusted God and was able to relax after his strong words. We can find the same thing. We must find the same thing.