"Stir Up The Nest"

My disclaimer: There are many people out in the world that have used this phrase (including myself); and, it seems to be gaining in popularity. I have heard it several times in the past two years concerning me and my life. In fact, that is how my difficulties began—someone used this phrase as part of the reason for changing the course of my life. In retrospect, I handled it all wrong. But I digress…I only mention that to say that I have given the phrase a lot of thought and have determined, that we are all idiots. (again, including myself)

Maybe that is a little harsh. Maybe I should have used the word ‘ignorant’--referring to our lack of knowledge, yet thinking that we do know, we run with it anyway.

My intentions are to get us all (especially including myself) to think and study a little more before we latch on to and use popular phrases and concepts thinking they are Biblical. When we do this, we naturally gravitate to using these phrases and concepts for our own self-motivated agendas. Or, at best, we are shallow.

Anyway, here are my current thoughts on this concept of God kicking people “out of the nest”…

When I first heard it, I believe that it was a sermon concerning the necessity for God to move us out of our comfort zone so that we would not get ‘fat and lazy’. Sometimes, God has to stir up the nest so that we will fly into what God has designed for us; and, I think that is fairly Biblical. In fact, the mother eagle has been known to take the nest apart so that the eaglet will not have a place to get comfortable. I think that we have all experienced this in our walk with God.

The Bible text seems to be Deut 32:11. As long as God is the one stirring up the nest, it will be fine, because He will always do the next part—“…spread His wings and catch them, and carry them…” In fact, when you read the context of that verse, the main thing up to this point is that God will take care of us.

Here is where it gets tricky…when we, being the humans that we are, take this concept and use it to make decisions on our own, instead of really and truly finding out what God wants to do. For instance, if I am wanting to accomplish a particular goal in my ministry, even a good, decent goal, it is easy to dismiss someone who does not fit, assuming that God is orchestrating the whole event. In reality, God may be allowing it, but in the heart, we are wrong because our motivation is inward on self, not outward towards the one being dismissed. I know…I did this in a way; and, later, it was done to me.

This brings up another phrase… “Whatever happens, God either allows or plans”. Yes, but that cannot be an excuse for doing the wrong thing. If I hit my wife, I cannot simply walk away and say, “God allowed that to happen…” We will all be held accountable for what we do, even if God does plan or allow it. There is still the neccesstiy for saying, “I was wrong” and making it right. But again, I digress…

Here is my main point: “God…has to kick you out of the nest…” If we are going to use that analogy, let’s use it in its entirety--especially if the decision is, humanly speaking, ours. A mother eagle knows when the time is right to kick her babies out of the comfort of the nest; and, she swoops down under the eaglet before it hits the rocks. This will go on for as many times as it takes, until he learns to fly. If we really feel that God is working through us to stir up someone’s nest, we must also be responsible for swooping down and carrying the baby eagle. If we don’t, the baby eagle will hit the rocks and may never fly.

I don’t think that God would speak to anyone and tell them to do the first half (kick out of the nest) but not the second half (help them to fly on their own). If we don’t do both parts, we will have crippled eagles that need healing. Just look around, you will probably see several...