So we have a “city farm”. that is at least what I like to call it. We have as close to a homestead as we can get here in the middle of Tulsa. Among the livestock portion of this little slice of country are the ducks. There is one male, he has a green head so I named him Kermit. Then there are the three females, Simba (yes I know its a boy’s name), Comet, and Stupid. yes my wife has named a duck stupid.
She isn’t just being mean, she is being honest, the duck is stupid. So in order to be true, this white duck with a puffy white crest on her head is stupid. You see the duck’s area has a kiddie pool and a 30 gallon water trough for them to drink from and frolic in. They love it! It is fun and somehow relaxing to sit on the deck and watch these guys swim and play in the water. I enjoyed it more before the Oklahoma summer hit full swing. 100 degree heat doesn’t make watching ducks relaxing. It is really tough to relax when your face is melting off from the heat.
This duck is called stupid primarily because she likes to fly the coop and get out of the fence. Now she doesn’t hurt the garden, or bother the chickens, even the dogs leave her be. The problem is she has no water outside of her run. At any given moment I can come home, look out the window and see her sitting in the sun on the wrong side of the fence panting like a dog. if you have never seen a duck pant there is a reason for that, they aren’t supposed to pant! They need water and lots of it.
Stupid however has decided that she values the freedom of the rest of the yard to water. The problem is, she needs the water while she just wants the freedom. Her values are all messed up. Sound familiar?
God has set boundaries for us. He wants us to live inside those boundaries. The reason is simple, we need what He offers within them. When we reject His plan and His boundaries we put ourselves in danger. We separate ourselves from the living water that only He can offer. Sure, it feels good to strut around like we make our own rules, stretching our wings and showing off to anyone who will watch, but that way leads to danger that we can not save ourselves from.
Proverbs 14:12
“There is a way which seems right to a man,
But its end is the way of death.”
The struggle isn’t the fence. We want to blame God’s rules and claim them unfair. We even go so far as to think that God set them up like they are in order to make us fail. This couldn’t be farther than the truth. God’s laws are in place so that we can have freedom WITHIN them, not in spite of them. When we sin and live in that lifestyle we are separated from God and therefore from the source of life. Its just like Stupid the duck. We need the water but we run from it until we are almost without hope. God has already given us what we need, we need only to accept it. Stupid has food, water, nesting materials, a coop, the company of Kermit and the other ducks, and plenty of room to wander to exercise. We have everything we could ever need and then some to enjoy a full and happy life. In fact a life within God’s boundaries is the only way to a happy life. Outside of His plan for us is heat and danger and eventually death.
Don’t hate the fence, embrace it! Don’t focus on what you “can’t” do within God’s laws, but focus on, celebrate, and enjoy the life He has given us the only safe, happy, full life we could have. Live and love in the precepts of the Lord. In short, don’t be Stupid.