Hummer Scrooge

Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Matt 10:39

My esteem of hummingbirds is radically downgraded. I was enchanted by their reaching beaks, emerald backs, and shimmering red throats. Flitting about the flora, they were miniature ornaments of joy on God’s Christmas tree. Then we hung a feeder by our window. One little guy took to the nectar with enthusiasm and frequency. He moved his permanent address to our tree. However, he began accosting visitors to HIS food source. My discovery and delight began to wane. Now he sits on the branch obsessing over any who would dare sip from one of his six feeding ports. We have nicknamed him ‘Hummer Scrooge’. When I took the feeder down for a re-fill, Scrooge zipped to the void and glared in as if to say, “Hey klutz, what do you think you’re doing with my feeder?”

My old nature slips easily into Scrooge’s mentality. On the outside I act cute and friendly; on the inside I want the best and I want it for myself. I accost any who would dare ask about my overabundance. Never mind that God provides it all. Years of living for myself have left a caption under my old portrait, ‘Restless, ungrateful, and aggressive.’ I am not going back there. I never found my life in that place.

God has hung what we need all around us. Partake and be satisfied. Delight that others have more. I have never been so open to receive love and laughter as when I began giving my life away. I don’t mean doling out surplus in a tithe but systematically liquidating holdings to kingdom work and living off God’s provision. It sounds drastic and impossible. Actually it is natural, the way we were intended to live. When we keep a fear of giving too deeply, we also keep stress and preoccupation. Our days become so much acquiring, accruing, and accounting. Possessions own us while we hide behind, ‘But one needs to be prudent and responsible’. Question: is it irresponsible to take Jesus’ statement, “Sell your possessions and give to the poor” at face value? (Luke 12:33) Not if we want to find our life.

Prayer: Father, help me make a plan to give it away.