I don't know about all of you people out there, but I personally love it when I hit a bird with my car. There's something raw and terrific about going down a gravel road at 90+ km/h and accidentally hunting down a bird in the process. Let's just say, in light of this, yesterday was ecstasy. My incredible boss, Gerald Dueck, called me up before work informing me that the crew was going to meet for breakfast at Humptys on perimeter. After a (dare-I-say) scrumptdelicious (that's for all those sunday school boys) conglomoration of perogies, salsa, peppers, onions, salsa, cheese, and scrambled eggs (and 4 cups of coffee), we were off to the jobsite. Accidentally, I meandered from the most direct route and found myself on a back road, still heading the general direction of Starbuck (the location of our new house). This would be no ordinary backcountry trek to the job though... but one of mass death and joy. Sounds morbid. As I was driving, I encountered a flock of birds nicely nestled on the road. There must have been 25 of them. Inevitably, my windshield broke the flight of one poor little sap, and he fell to his ruin on the gravel behind me. According to my personal stats, I had just increased my lifetime bird kills by 50%, moving from 2 to 3. Then, within one minute, another crowd of birds. This time, however, it was my bumper that did the damage, taking out another bird. Two on the day. Well, from the title, you can guess what happened. One more flock - even bigger - 3 deaths to add to the toll. And the last piece of carnage another minute later - 2 more deaths. This brought my daily total to 7. This has got to be a world-record for accidental car killings of birds. I couldn't believe it. Any other astounding bird killing stories?
More important in my own life: Freedom. I found myself very thankful once again for God and the incredible Father and Lover He is. Growing up I was a very unconfident person. I didn't really think much of myself. I pretty much thought I was dirt and that I deserved the teasing/neglect I got. All of this became ingrained deep inside of me and became the motivation for the way I thought about myself and the way I carried out my life. At Bethany, God began an incredible work in me. He began to strip all the layers of self-blame, feelings of uselessness, feelings of inferiority. He began to uncover the creation He had personally designed and ordained. The real 'Cody' began to unveil. As I became more and more confident in who I was, I began to see God and my faith in a whole new perpective. I want to live my life on the edge, free and yet obedient to God's will. Freedom. I love that word. God has set me free from not only sins that I was burdened with for a long time, but also all of those things that people said growing up; the lies that Satan kept shooting at me. He showed me that if He "is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31). And the crazy part is that it is in our weaknesses and shortcomings that God wants us the most. It seems to me that personal spiritual warfare is pretty much a battle of the weakness. Satan is after that which tempts us, that which brings us down: those things which we are weak in. God wants to make his strength perfect in our weakness. Who will we allow to have our weaknesses? When we give those weaknesses to God; when we give those discouraging lies and manipulations to God; then we can live that freedom that he so badly wants for us to have. I'm passionate about Freedom. It's exhilarating. I can finally be myself and all that God wants for me to be.
What's your take on freedom?
