This morning as we were eating breakfast, we had a visitor. He sat on the window ledge right outside the window above our stairwell, pecking the window incessantly. The sunlight must have been hitting the window just right so that he could see his own reflection and thought it was another male cardinal threatening his territory.

For quite some time now I've heard both male and female cardinals pecking at our window. I sneak up the stairs and watch to see which ones are there. No other birds do this; just the cardinals.

As I was thinking about this, I was struck by the futility of this beautiful little bird's efforts. He must have sat there for over an hour pecking valiantly away. It reminded me of what Solomon says in Ecclesiastes about the vanities of life.

It also made me consider what things in my own life have been futile attempts to protect a 'territory'. We all have them, don't we? These are the things that are we often hold onto that we shouldn't; those things that we think we own when we don't. I've struggled in this area of my life, but, God has used many circumstances to teach me that all I have belongs to Him and if I can just remember to see my life as purposed by Him rather than in my own control, I won't keep pecking away at things I can't change.

I've had a lot of time to learn this principle in the past 5 years; and the learning was tough. God uprooted us from a church we helped to plant. It was a very painful process because those roots ran deep. But through it all I can look back and see that God was teaching me much-needed lessons about ownership.

What things do we sometimes try to hold onto? I love the way Paul puts it in Philippians:

Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision; 3 for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh, 4 although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: 5 circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, 9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Phil 3:2-11 (NASB)

In other words, what we learn from Paul is that there is nothing of any value outside of Jesus Christ! Anything else falls into Solomon's 'vanity' category.

So, dear one...where is your confidence? What are you pecking away at today? Whatever it is, do you think you can let go of it for "the surpassing value of knowing Jesus Christ"? I know it sometimes seems like there's so much to lose, but, from an eternal perspective, there's so much more to gain!

Loving you in Jesus,

Jan