Last week, as I was driving to do some errands, I passed a house where a turkey was walking back and forth frantically along the outside of one section of a chain link fence. The turkey would stop, peck at the fence, and then trot over to the other end of the same section and stop and peck there. It continued to walk back and forth, clearly very agitated, stopping and pecking over and over again.
In the less than 10 seconds it took me to drive by that particular house, I have to say that I felt a real connection to that poor, frazzled bird. Like we were kindred spirits. Seeing that poor turkey, and the deep compassion that welled up in me at its momentary plight, made me realize how very much I have been feeling just like it. I've been frantically "pecking" at a section of emotional "fence", getting more and more stressed as I continued to go back and forth over the same details of the situations that I feel "trapped" in right now. I can't seem to find the answer or the opening to move forward and find the peace I'm looking for.
I wish I had time to stop that day..(and the confidence that I wouldn't get my eyes pecked out by a stressed out turkey(!)...and that I had been able to convince that poor, frantic bird to walk just 16 more feet to the left. Then, that turkey would have found the end of the fence and a completely open space to easily head to wherever she(or he?) wanted to go.
I've spent quite a bit of time thinking about that 10 second moment over the last week. It's funny what God can use to speak to us. If I had to take a gander at what He was trying to tell me, it's that He wants me to stop panicking and stop trying to "peck" my own way through the circumstances in my life that seem impenetrable. I need to keep moving forward and trust that there's an opening that I just can't see from my current view.
Or, in in Cliff Notes version, stop being a turkey.;)
