Chasin’ Chickens

Many of you already know, my husband and I have embarked on a new adventure and started the long process of moving. Over the weekend, we moved the animals (We have two cats and five chickens). Believe it or not, the cats were much easier to catch, and chickens aren’t stupid!

Our spoiled chickens live in the Taj Mahal of chicken coops. We built their coop (repurposed from my son’s old playground equipment) inside their own very large chicken yard. We were rookies, didn’t know what we were doing, and went a little overboard. In other words, they really like their home and didn’t want to leave it.

My husband and I tried to trick the chickens into going into the cage. We threw bread in it (their favorite junk food), and we waited in the corner. We waited and waited and waited. We waited a very long time and then waited some more. Losing patience, we decided to chase them into the cage, but they just weren’t having any part of it! If I only had a video…imagine, the two of us running around the chicken yard, knocking things over, scaring the daylights out of our poor hens. It looked like a tornado had whipped through. It was a sight!…and did you know chickens can fly?

We attempted reason next. Ever try reasoning with a chicken? We explained to them that if they didn’t go with us, no one would be there to take care of them. Their response? Bye Felicia! Finally, hubby brought out the old fishing net. After more chaos, we caught three of them, but we had to leave the others behind (our neighbor’s going to take care of them). 

People are kind of like chickens. They just don’t know what’s good for them, no matter how many times we tell them, no matter how long we wait for them. Whether we attempt to lure them, trick them, or chase them, or even reason with them, they will do what they want, which is usually the opposite of what’s actually good for them. We were forced to use a net to catch our chickens creating a very uncomfortable and stressful situation (and the chickens didn’t like it so much either). 

Sometimes God is forced to use such techniques on us, isn’t He? He just wants us to come with Him. He promises to care for us, feed us, love us, but we just won’t go. Like those chickens, we run from Him thinking we know best. So, God has to break out the old fishing net to trap us, causing us stress, taking us out of our comfort zone-our safe space, because He knows our destination, and He knows it’s so much better. He doesn’t want to leave us behind. If only we’d listen to Him, maybe we wouldn’t have to get caught in that smelly old fishing net. 

By the way, not all of us make it out alive. We lost one chicken on the way. Fear overcame her, and she had a heart attack. Sometimes people lose their faith and let fear take over—just like that chicken. Wouldn’t life be so much better, if only we weren’t so chicken, if only we’d listen to God?