A Lesson from Crows

This morning, I sat on my back patio for my quiet time. The birds were singing, it's not raining for a change, and there was a cool breeze. It was a beautiful setting to read and pray. And then the neighborhood crows started. They were calling to one another and I counted about 5 of them making a "caw, caw" sound back and forth for about an hour. They are loud and noisy birds and I was distracted and it was definitely difficult to concentrate. 

However, after a while I finally was able to tune them out and I had a wonderful quiet time. As I settled in to pray, God brought those crows back to mind. I realized that my inability to focus on my blessings and hyper-focus on whatever trial or even inconvenience in my life is a lot like those noisy birds. 

There are so many good things in my life, and yet, the problem is the thing that distracts me and what I focus on. It will pull me away from being thankful, joyful and even away from God. It becomes my focus and it consumes me. 

And the problem with letting a trial take up every waking moment is that I begin to think that everything is wrong in my life. I lose my ability to see God's hand in anything. So then I spiral down into self-pity, whining and depression.  

However, when I force myself to pray and read God's word and listen to His voice, the raucous sound of the problem fades into the background and then I can hear what the Lord has to say to me. The trial still exists, but it is no longer taking my attention off what I should be focused on. 

Those crows stuck around for quite a while this morning, but when I changed my focus they weren't so distracting. And then after a while I realized that they weren't even making noise anymore. I was so in-tune to what God had to say that I didn't even notice that they had moved on.

When I focus on the Lord, the loud and noisy distractions that pull my attention away begin to fade into the background. The problem or trial is still there, but my attitude is better because I'm not hyper-focused on it. That is when God begins to work in my heart.