The Bird in the Ceiling

            All morning while I’ve been at work there’s been a bird in the drop ceiling. I’ve heard it jumping around up there and have even hit some of the tiles hoping to “scare” it out of the area but it seems to have made the space above my office its new home. I borrowed a broom from the guys across the hall hoping that I could lift a tile and give the bird an escape route.

            As God so often does, He painted a picture for me concerning my own life and the sin I so easily get caught up in. Like the bird “trapped” in the drop ceiling, so my life “trapped” in sin is similar. Sometimes I get into the sin by chance, sometimes on purpose but, I guess, it’s ultimately my choice to enter into sin … or, at the very least, to entertain the temptation to sin.

            I know that Scripture tells me this: “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).

            Just like me giving that little bird an escape route with the open tile, God gives me – He gives each of us – an escape route from temptation. Whether it be claiming his Word or making something blatantly obvious like hanging up the phone during a risqué phone call to someone besides one’s spouse, God always gives a way out – the opportunity to do the right thing.

            Let’s make the hard right instead of taking the easy left.