Ep 43: Grackles, Cowbirds, Starlings, and Squirrels

Speaker1: Well. Good morning. I'm Daniel Delp, and this is for your Sunday morning drive. The short podcast with the goal of providing your motivation, your drive on your way to worship and recentering your mind on spiritual things on those hectic Sunday mornings. We are brought to you in partnership with the Ministry League Network of Podcasts. You can always check out our website for your Sunday morning drive comm. For more information on Ministry League, or you can visit the link to their YouTube channel in the show notes of every episode. I do hope you're having a wonderful morning. I want to thank you for spending some time with us every week and making us a part of your routine, and if you have a moment, please rate and review us wherever you listen and share us with a friend. That's the best way to help us grow. Let's go ahead and get the show on the road. This is episode 43 grackles, cowbirds, starlings, and squirrels. Let's go to church.

Speaker2: Are we there yet?

Speaker1: Well, if you know me, you know that winter is probably my favorite time of the year. I love getting a hot cup of coffee, a warm blanket, filling my bird feeders to the brim, and just watching as the unique and beautiful visitors come to eat their fill. And once I put that seed out, it does not take long for them to notice. Recently, however, I've been frustrated by the types of creatures that seem to swarm into my yard. You see, I put the seed out with the hopes of seeing birds like cardinals, chickadees, blue jays, nuthatches, finches, and woodpeckers. But I've been overwhelmed lately with what I consider to be backyard rabble. Grackles. Cowbirds, starlings, and worst of all, the squirrels. They swarm my feeders, devouring all the seed, and they come in droves, leaving nothing for the birds that I expect to see. In fact, I'd get so fed up that I'd occasionally shout or tap on the window to scare them off. Sometimes I'd even go to the lengths of letting our dogs out to chase them away. And I think my wife found some humor in my frustration, as she'd often chuckle and tell me just to leave them alone. And she said something to the effect of, you don't get to decide who shows up when you put the seat out. They are all God's creatures, and they're hungry too. And you know what? Begrudgingly, I'll admit she's right. When I put the seat out there, it's not up to me who gets fed. And it reminds me of the parable of the sower. In Matthew 13, we see the farmer sowing his seed liberally, letting it fall where it may.

Speaker1: In verse three, Jesus simply starts the parable with the words behold, the sower went out to sow. That's it. His goal and his purpose was to sow the seed, not to judge what would be the most receptive soil. The message being that all are welcome to feast upon the word, and we do not have the right to withhold it from anyone. Friends, let's examine ourselves for just a moment. When we put the seed, the Word of God, out into our communities, do we get uncomfortable with who shows up to be fed? Maybe because they don't look like we expected, and this could be based on a variety of reasons color, shape, size, profession, nationality, socioeconomic background, political party, you name it. Well, if that's the case, my friends, then we need to fix our hearts. Because they're all God's creatures and they are hungry too. Jesus says in Matthew chapter five verse six, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. And when it comes to the Word of God, when we put the seed out there, it's not up to us who gets fed. We should just be overjoyed that they're hungering for the truth. Well, those are my thoughts for your Sunday morning drive. Now it's time to hear yours. Our discussion questions for this week are. Do we sometimes let our own bias and prejudice, even unintentionally, impact who we share the gospel with? Do we gatekeep who gets to be fed from God's Word? How can we be better about loving those who are different than us? And in what ways will this impact our response to go into all the world?