Last November, I kept hearing this strange sound while I was alone. I’d sit and journal or blog in the quiet, only to be disturbed by tap, tap, tap, tap. It would go off and on. I thought it might be my neighbors doing something in their yard. Maybe some sort of hammering tool.
Then one afternoon when I was putting away Hannah’s clean clothes in her room, I heard tap, tap, tap again. This time loud and clear. I put my head against her wall and sure enough something was banging on her wall. So I crept outside with my camera to spy on whatever it was.
I’m sure any normal person would try to scare this bird off right away. After all he’s damaging my house, right? Not me! I watched this crazy bird work. He was two stories high near Hannah’s window just going to town with his beak. He’d pause and look around, then go back to digging his hole like I wasn’t even watching. I laughed to myself and thought, Good luck! You’re not going to get much from our house. Why aren’t you pounding a hole in a tree?
As I walked closer, he flew away.
I haven’t heard the banging since. Maybe he knocked some sense into himself and picked a tree this time.
God used this moment and these marks to teach me a lesson.
This woodpecker was doing what he was created to do. Hammering holes to find bugs, make a nest, or to attract a mate, so I’ve heard. He didn’t care if I watched him. So what he tastes a little paint. Nothing stops this bird from digging holes wherever he goes. He lives by design. Without excuse or argument, the bird just is..
I want to be like this bird and live out my God-given design wherever I go. I don’t want anything to deter me from doing what He has created me to do or become. And yet in life so many things stop me. I see someone watching me, so I quit. Maybe I’m being too noisy, better quiet down. Or I’m easily distracted and fly away and never finish what I started. Other times, I doubt my design. Am I really supposed to do that? Which really means, I doubt my Designer.
Do you?
This week I’m reading a great book by Jennifer Kennedy Dean called Fueled by Faith. This paragraph explains a lot to me about our design.
“When God puts His promises in you, you will know it. You’ll find that it is woven into your spiritual DNA. You can’t get rid of it. You may become discouraged. You may decide one day not to believe it anymore. But you wake up the next day, and you believe it again in spite of yourself. As the vision develops, you can see how God has always been moving you toward the vision. The abilities and interests He has given you, the advantages and disadvantages, the circumstances–both good and bad–all have been shaping the vision and preparing for its birth.”(page 111, Fueled by Faith, 2005, New Hope Publishing.)
I understand this DNA stuff. As much as I say “God, here’s my dreams. They are Yours. I don’t want them if they aren’t from You.” I wake up the next morning and there they are again, smiling and staring me in the face. I thought I told you to stop following me.
Am I trying to control here or what? What if these dreams are God’s after all? And here I am pushing them away out of fear? Fear of what? What if God wants to bless my ministry? What if His plan is to have me live out my design, giving more encouragement to others and love doing it? The sooner I realize these dreams are part of my God given design, the better off life will be.
I must stop denying who God has made me to be.
And like this bird, I must start leaving creative marks(holes)on the world around me.
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How ’bout you? Are you living out God’s design each day? Are you leaving His mark?
Thank you for joining me for another Stop, Look and Listen where I share how God speaks through the simple, the everyday, and the ordinary moments of life.
Friend, You KNOW this one speaks to me right???
The burning passion inside me is stirring again since David came back from the weekend. I feel the ache to teach, yet again….and then the words about promoting myself come into my mind. What is He saying through it all? So many things are rising to the surface right now that I cannot even look at them all.
I know that He’s got plans in it all…. watching, waiting, seeking…. trusting….
Loved this one…
Great post! When I was asked 3 years ago to take over the Director’s position at my preschool, I didn’t want to do it. I wanted to stay in the classroom and not have anything to do with the administration of the school, let alone be the BOSS. I kept thinking what Moses said in Exodus 4:13, “O Lord, please send someone else to do it.”
I ended up accepting the job. I only did it for 2 years and then stepped down for a variety of reasons. Boy, did I learn a lot and feel that it was a stepping stone toward other things that God wants me to do. I’m still teaching at the school but feel God leading me in other directions. I’m prayerfully trying to discern what his will is for me!
This one spoke to me, too. A lot.
I’m finding that in the end, all we can do is trust God. He won’t just lead us to the things that will make us happy, He’ll lead us to the things that will make us happiest.
That’s tough for me to realize sometimes, especially when I’m pretty sure that what will make me happiest is getting all those things I want in life.
Then again, He can see a lot more on the mountaintop than I can in the valley.
I love downy woodpeckers. What a great lesson. It reminded me of how I have fought my God given tendency to be very open and honest and bold and talkative. It got me in trouble more times than I can say while God refined me. And often I would try to be this quiet little mouse and everyone would ask what was wrong. In these later years God has shown me how He uses my openness and forthrightness to minister to others. I still don’t always like myself but I am learning that you can’t fight God’s design! Great post!
Wow is all I can say…it hit very hard…yep right to the core…like I am now off to ask Him to explain it all to me! Thank you for being a messenger of His message today!
I’m lovin’ this one, Tiffany!
Especially in this present season.
Melanie@Bella~Mella
“I wake up the next morning and there they are again, smiling and staring me in the face. I thought I told you to stop following me.”
hee hee
That makes me smile!
That is just so me. 🙂
I tell myself all of the reasons why I need to just move on and forget a certain dream, and then by golly, it just keeps following me. 🙂
Sweet blessings to you, Tiffany, as you pursue His plans for you. I know we will now and always find Him worthy to be trusted.
Thanks for speaking to my heart, love you.
This book sounds wonderful. I can use more faith in my life right now, I just might look the book up!
Yes! It’s all around me! Just as it is with you. Praise God!
Thought I’d zip through my emails before leaving for Denver to do a book signing! Praise the Lord, who would ever think I would get this far as an author for the Lord. I need prayer too PLEASE! I want to be just what the Lord wants for these precious people that will purchase the book.
I love the woodpeckers, I used to watch their strong intent on my deck in CA. We thought they were the coolest birds ever, and yes, they don’t distract easily, even from their enemies! Our fellow bird lovers told us to get a “fake” life-size owl and put him out on the deck. Well, that didn’t deter them either, one actually went up to it and bravely gave it a peck to see if it could really hurt him back! Talk about being brave for the other little rednecks that were happily pecking away.
Lots of Love and lessons from Jesus in these wonderfully created things around us.
Thursday, I took a lonely friend to the mountains where we could pray and observe the spring coming through the trees and animals. Wonderful wonders.
Thank you Tiffany for sharing God’s pets with us.
Blessings,
Paulette
Beautiful post my friend…and very encouraging. I have had a dream for a long time that is on the back burner. But I know God has not forgotten it. It’s just not for this season. Even though the current situation may be difficult, I can see His hand at work preparing me for the next one. Thank you for the encouragement to keep believing.
Hope you get your computer problems solved. Have a great Sunday!
Wow, how God used a crazy bird looking for bugs in painted wood to illustrate a kingdom principle, is just amazing.
“I must stop denying who God has made me to be. And like this bird, I must start leaving creative marks(holes)on the world around me.” The Bible tell us that Jesus gave gifts to His people so that we can serve Him, eg 1 Corinthians 12:27-30.
I like how you explain these gifts or dreams as being part of our spiritual DNA. In my late teens the Lord gave me a burden for Asia. I went to Bible college, became an assitant pastor, and began to prepare to become a missionary. Yet shocking health problems resulted in me leaving the ministry and never becoming a missionary. For years I wandered how this could fit into His plan, considering the ‘dreams’ He had given me. Years later I married a Japanese girl, have been to Japan to six times, and have spent most of the past fifteen years serving the Lord in my city’s only Japanese Christian Church.
Hey Tiffany
This is really good… and speaks to the core of my heart…
God has given me a dream, or a vision, for something I feel He is calling me to do this summer… I haven’t shared it with anyone, because I do not want to do it just because I think it is a good idea, I want Him to confirm it to me and open the door, I want to follow Him, not jump out to do something and ask Him to bless it. Does that make sense?
Thank you for sharing how God speaks to you through the ordinary… He is using you mightily!
I have an “ordinary” I want to post on, do you mind if I link back to you for the stop, look, and listen idea?
Blessings!