I Lift My Hands

The Robe
By Lloyd C. Douglas

The Casey Anthony case, the anniversary of my dear baby cousin, Samson's birth, and the predictably of the nightly bad news have gotten me down. Humans never learn! We beat our heads against a wall with the excuse we are just trying or we are just human. These excuses give us a reason not to step back from the wall we've banged our heads on to look at the million of other holes from previous generations. We could learn from them.

I recall one humble, blameless, not-so-stupid human who taught and lives the message. He lived in a time when it was popular to pit two men against each other for the mere sport of seeing someone die or bleed for the amusement of large betting crowds. This man lived in a time of massive debt and the taxing of the poor to pay the deficient back. The important men of the that time were corrupt and didn't care about the consequences of their actions. They would go to war for the expansion of their own power/influence. Materialism, sensualism, and self-gratification were advertised as the greatest desires of all humans. It was a time of great advances in technology. Trade between countries was

A birdie parable

Well folks, I'm having a hard time falling asleep thanks to good ol' daylight savings time. I hop this is to your benefit.

My older sister Karly, me and our younger sister,
Destiny at field day or something.

When I first started school, my family lived in a two bedroom town home about ten minutes from the elementary school. My mom had just had my little sister. She had her hands full taking care of my siblings and a in home daycare. Every morning my older sister and I would get ready for school to the sound of toddlers arriving at our house. My mom would feed us a quick breakfast. My older sister would place me on her handle bars and ride her bike to school. It was so much fun for me. The wind in my hair I'd watch the houses and a soccer field speed past. (I'm not so sure my older sister, Karly, felt the same way.) One day the neighbor boy was walking through the soccer field. He heard some thing above him. He looked up and SPLAT! Some seagull poo landed on his forehead. Whenever I see a seagull now, I think of our poor neighbor cleaning poo off his face.


“A farmer went out to sow seed. ⁴ While he was scattering the seed, some of it fell by the road. The birds came and ate all that seed. ⁵Other seed fell on rocky ground, where there was not enough dirt. It grew very fast there, because the soil was not deep. ⁶ But when the sun rose, it burned the plants. The plants died because they did not have deep roots. ⁷ Some other seed fell among thorny weeds. The weeds grew and stopped the good plants from growing. ⁸ But some of the seed fell on good ground. There it grew and made grain. Some plants made 100 times more grain, some 60 times more, and some 30 times more. ⁹ You people who hear me, listen!” 


On Sunday, our pastor preached about the parable of the sower from Matthew 13 (For the rest of the story...). He was discussing the importance of having our hearts prepared for the Lord and how each seed the sower planted had great potential. While his teaching is/was valid, I find this passage of scripture slightly comical. I've heard so many preachers put the different types of soil in a negative tone. I sat there thinking about our neighbor boy and my teacher later that day talking about how seeds are spread. Seeds come in various forms. Some fly before they find a resting place to germinate. Other seeds fall from trees, using their rotting casings to protect them, until they find a safe place to grow. (This is how wild orchards are made.) Sometime birds will eat the seeds. The birds will expel them. The seed will (if it doesn't land on your car or the neighbor boy's face) use the poo as fertilizer to grow.


The entire parable is a testament to the mercy of the Lord. We are all seeds with grand potential. We all come to grow in Christ different ways. Sometimes we need to experience being eaten by the birdies to realize for ourselves we are more than poo. You notice in the allegory above the bird seed didn't "burn up" or "get choked out"? I'd like to think bird fodder became a vineyard or an orchard. The seed was given time to understand it's possibilities with the Lord's help. If you feel you are in a bird's belly and are about to feel like poo, God still see the potency in you.