Hummingbird Selfishness

Our hummingbirds were late coming back this spring, but they are making up for lost time. We now have at least a half dozen humming around our four feeders. They sound like dive bombers as they whiz by your head. As beautiful as they are on the outside, their inner beauty pales in comparison. They are as jealous as the day is long.

Although there is enough sugar water to feed a flock of hummers, they spend most all their time shooing off their competition. They cannot enjoy the sugary concoction for fear that another might drink some, too. They fuss and fume like jousters trying to knock each other off the feeder.

They remind me of a man who had a dream that he went to hell. What he saw was shockingly different from what he expected. There was a huge banquet table ten feet wide extending as far as the eye could see. It was filled with every delectable food you could imagine. People were sitting on both sides of the table with a ten-foot-long fork firmly tied to one hand and a ten-foot-long spoon tied to the other. The people were yelling obscenities and cursing at one another because they could not eat any of the food. The ten-foot utensils attached to their arms were too long. They could not get the business end of the utensil to their own mouths so they could eat. The food sat there tantalizingly in front of them, but they were incapable of getting any of it into their mouths. Their frustration and anger spewed out like a volcano.

Suddenly, the dreamer was transported from hell to heaven. To his surprise, the scene was exactly the same as the one in hell. Same table. Same feast. Same ten-foot utensils tied to the hands. However, instead of yelling and cursing, the people were laughing and eating lavishly, enjoying the feast before them. The difference? They were feeding each other.

The Bible has a lot to say about giving and getting.

Luke 12:29-30 MSG— “What I’m trying to do here is get you to relax, not be so preoccupied with getting so you can respond to God’s giving.”

Luke 6:38 MSG— “Give away your life; you’ll find life given back, but not merely given back — given back with bonus and blessing. Giving, not getting, is the way. Generosity begets generosity.”

Acts 20:35 NIV— “The Lord Jesus Himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

John 3:16— For God so loved the world, that He GAVE His only begotten Son…

Are you fused with Jesus? Are you ONE with Him? Is He living His life through you, for you, in you, and as you? Was Jesus a “giver?” Was He generous? Kind? Loving? Selfless? If so, Jesus would be more concerned with giving than getting, right?

The only difference between LIVING and LOVING is one letter. Living is “I-focused” whereas loving is “other-focused.” Freely you have received. Freely give. Don’t be a hummingbird.

You think about that.

Blessings,

Kenny