The Frantic Fowl

The Frantic Fowl

The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.

1 Corinthians 10:13

The day had been hot and tiring, and my wife and I were looking forward to a good night’s sleep. Being Tasmanians on a short-term mission project in northern Ghana was a “climate change” experience. Sleep was intermittent at best, but as the sun was waking up, even our rest was shattered. A frantic, screeching guinea fowl was just outside our window.

Stumbling to the window and rubbing my bleary eyes, I saw the bird running up and down the wire fence seeking an escape hole. The panic was not caused by human activity. Rather, I spied three vultures on a tall tree stump looking intently at the distressed bird. From our vantage point, we could see what the bird could not: Just beyond the length it had run was a huge break in the fence.

My going out to help the bird find the hole seemed to make it more frightened. Perhaps it thought I wanted it for the cooking pot. Finally, after some frustration, I herded it toward and through the gap. Freedom for the bird! Silence for us. Disappointment for the vultures.

Later I reflected on the times I have felt as the guinea fowl did. In my panic over some issue, I have run about aimlessly squawking, if not aloud, definitely in my soul, not seeing the “hole” that will solve my problem. I wonder how much interrupted sleep I have caused others by my fretting and lack of trust in the faithfulness of the Lord?

—Raymond N. Hawkins

Lord, when the spirit of that frantic fowl stirs within, may I put it on the chopping block! Don’t let it blind me to your answers or directions, please. Amen.