“Like a bird that wanders from its nest is a person who wanders from his place”
—Proverbs 27:8
I remember the first time I witnessed a sparrow hit a window. I thought, “This never would have happened if the bird hadn’t left the nest.”
Leaving the nest is a dangerous business, yet it’s also necessary. A bird that never leaves the nest will never learn to fly.
You all have nests — familiar places, tangible or intangible, which you have constructed for comfort and safety. Eventually, you wander from those nests. Times of distress will force you to pack up and search for something better. Jacob’s sons going down to Egypt, David fleeing to the wilderness, Naomi and Ruth travelling back to Naomi’s old country.
Wisdom distinguishes these wanderers from those who simply seek greener grass. Today’s unprecedented mobility offers both opportunity and disaster. Unbridled experimentation becomes perpetual promiscuity. Unsure of what you seek, you will wander, looking with desire-blinded eyes for something that will satisfy. Promiscuity and prosperity have moments of easy exhilaration, but are ultimately unsatisfying.
The worst kind of wandering is departing from your true self by imitating someone else. This kind of wandering undermines your uniqueness, your God-given signature strengths. It’s true that while in the formative stage, your uniqueness may be a source of misunderstanding. But as God establishes you, you will flourish.
Our lives are filled with longing for better days. “In this life, you will have trouble”, Jesus says, “but fear not, I have overcome the world.” Do you really believe God is with you? If you do, your actions will reflect our belief that He is able to make good out of evil, see you through, and finish the work He began in you. You don’t want to look back over your life and see what could have been if you had only stayed the course. “We feel that under other skies, we would succeed,” C.H. Spurgeon once observed. “I may know something about my weakness in the present trial but I cannot know how I might stagger under another. Be wary of changing your trials. To exchange one trial for another is all the relief you will get.”
Not all who wander are lost, but be careful how, and why you wander.
Flickr photo (cc) by jaredeberhardt
