The arrival of the birds.

I was laying in bed the other day waiting for my alarm to go off. I do this often, as I am about the furthest thing from a morning person possible. I typically try to stay asleep as long as I possibly can. This morning I noticed something different however. Outside my window I could hear the chirping of all kinds of birds. As I lay there, I could hear the hammer-like noise of the woodpecker and the soft chirping of song birds. It struck me as odd for a moment. I didn't remember waking up to birds any other time that week. In fact in the last several months I could not for the life of me remember waking up to the chirping of birds. At first I thought that I had overslept but soon realized that my alarm was set to go off in another 40 min.

The birds signified the first sign of spring. Their arrival warranted the attention of warm weather and a beautiful shining sun. With the warmer air and the added light provided by the sun the snow began to melt away revealing a greenish brown on the ground. The first colors aside from white that we've seen in at least a month. Everyone's energy level increased and seemed to cheer everyone up from their wintery complacency.

Looking back over my life I can't remember ever noticing the day that birds would make their spring appearance so suddenly. I've certainly never been aware of the sharp contrast between a day without birds chirping to a day with birds chirping. It was kind of beautiful and at the same time a great moment for reflection. Those birds know inside them it was time to awake. They knew, not because of the weatherman or because of the calendar that told them when to start singing. They knew because something inherit in their nature told them it was time to start busying themselves with their purpose.

With the start of this new season we will see all sorts of life. Animals will shake off winter's chill and go in search of food. Plants will begin to bring forth new beauties and every leaf formed will be unique and have a certain purpose. Again all these things know to do this because of something inside them that compels them, that this is what they were made for. With spring coming we must begin to realize that it is the same with us. From deep within, there is something that calls to us, telling us that we were made for something more. It is time for us to leave the slumber of our apathy and the inadequacy of our perceived abilities. it is time for us to come awake in His power. As the David Crowder Band puts it:

Come Awake from sleep. Arise.
You were dead
You've come alive
Wake up wake up
Open your eyes
Climb from your grave
Into the light

Bring us back to life

It is Finished

Yesterday I spent a good amount of time cleaning around the house and getting my massive pile of laundry done. As I folded up the last piece of laundry and put it away I felt almost bittersweet. You see as much time as I had spent cleaning and doing laundry I was uncomfortably aware of the fact that it would not last. It got me thinking about it though. I love when I complete something, when I can look at something and say that I'm done. Something that I have to constantly work at and strive towards can often irritate me or drive me to boredom. For instance when I go climbing I typically will do a route until I can get it, until I can say that I successfully climbed it. When I can't get a climb though I'll spend the majority of my time there working on that one climb. If I don't get it that trip, then I'll think about it constantly afterward. I am obsessed with finishing things.

I don't think I'm alone in this though. We are always obsessed with being finished. Most of America looks forward to retirement because it signifies the end of work. We put away money for that time so that we won't have to work. All the years that we've put in up to that point are for that purpose, being finished. We dislike having to constantly work at something. We see this in our society all the time when someone is paying bills. Those who own homes often have a mortgage hanging over their heads, they keep hoping to have it paid off and to be finished paying for it. Buying smaller things often make us feel better temporarily because we own it right then and there. We have paid all the money that we need to pay on it and are now finished. It seems to be something deep inside us though that stirs us on to being finished.

I believe that it is very significantly related to the fact that we are broken inside. We have for so long known that we are sinners and that our soul was meant for more than that. We were meant to be in the image of Christ. We were meant to be something different and because of that our souls have been working tirelessly to rectify the problem. Our deepest desire is to be finished, to be done fixing ourselves and finally back to what we were supposed to be in the first place. We are tired of fighting with ourselves and trying to get ourselves to do things or think things that we should and to stop ourselves from things we know we should not be doing. The thing is we will never be finished, we will always be working towards it but never actually reaching completion. It is no wonder that people turn from God. We blame Him for this constant state of turmoil within us. We hold Him responsible for the fact that we have to keep working. The dilemma is that all of our work and strife is for nothing unless we turn to Christ. In Philippians 1:6, He promises to complete the work that He has started in us. We must stop striving to be better and to surrender to the will of Christ. For it is He alone that can say "It Is Finished".