THE BLUE BIRD by Doug Hazelbaker
On they way to work the other day I came to a four way stop on a country road I travel every day. In the center of that four way stop was a dead or dieing blue bird. Its partner was right there with it, hopping around it like a fearless protector of what it loved. I’m sitting in a 4000 pound car, motor running, within feet of this precious little blue bird. It refused to abandon its partner. As easily as I could gave as wide a birth as possible to them as I traveled by. I looked in my rearview mirror and the little protector was still standing solid beside its mate.
I realize that psychologist, psychiatrist and sociologist will tell you, that until you love yourself you can’t love anyone else, but what if that is a bit askew and the truth is you can’t love anyone else, until you know you’re loved. We as intellectual human beings want to believe that we are capable of understanding and comprehending the wisdom of a GOD that created earth, but I truly believe we are barely a moment ahead of the bluebird. I know that the bluebird is ruled by instinct(created by God) and I also know that we were given that instinct plus the ability to understand it. It is a perfect process, trust in your instinct to know that you are loved.
Wonderful post.
We are loved. The One who made us and died for us, does love us.
He didn’t want us to have to rely on our instincts, or our feelings that we are loved, so He gave us something tangible, from outside of ourselves, that we might know with assurance that we are loved by Himself.
He gave us His Word. Preached, and taught, and read from the Bible. And His visable Word of water, bread and wine. Places where God acts…for us…where His love actually comes all the way down to us in a tangible way. Where the rubber meets the road.
What great gifts of faith and love He has given us.
I think Doug is exactly right. We can’t love anyone else until we know we are loved. Some of us were blessed by homes where the message that we were loved was clearly communicated. I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that my parents loved me unconditionally and, like that bluebird Doug described, that they would give their lives for me, if need be. So, it was an easy transition for me to learn about God and that He also loves me unconditionally. God’s love is the same kind of love I had from my parents, only immeasurably greater! It does seem instinctual for me to love and be loved.
For others, they haven’t been so blessed. They don’t have that “instinct” to know they are loved. Perhaps it was there initially, but has been extinguished by years of neglect or abuse from the people in their lives who should have loved them. So, there are many people who can’t rely on their instincts alone. That’s why it’s important to carry the message of God’s love to everyone. The message is carried in many different ways – in word, but, most importantly, in action. Consistent loving actions over years and years may be required to undo the damage that has been done to a person. I believe that’s our purpose – to be a part of showing God’s love to each person that we touch every day.
Connie, that was exactly what i was trying to say. know matter how desperate or deprive our lives are or have been, we are loved. We just don’t all know it yet, but i think that deep inside all of us, know matter how beat down we have been, know matter how unworthy of love we have been told we are. That there is a small place deep in our core that tells us that we should be love that we have a right to be loved, that we can be loved.
“That’s why it’s important to carry the message of God’s love to everyone.”
Steve, may I point out that the WORD is a person, and that WORD is within you. The bible is not the WORD until it is ‘lifted-up’, that is, ’seen’ spiritually. It is not a history book. Read as a factual account will put you crook, that’s why it can become the biggest source of argument I know. It has to be read ‘from above’. Read in that way the bible can be very helpful as it gives scope for the spirit to speak through the written words and open things up into a wider vista (so we can see where we’re headed). The spirit just uses the passages to trigger our deeper feelings and the bigger “pictures” then emerge from deep down. Quite often we can read something and it may be a few hours or even days later, when you aren’t even thinking about it, that a revelation suddenly pops out, as Angie has discovered.
Doug, I love the story of the bluebird – isn’t it a wonderful liberation to find that the spirit can use anything from the natural world to teach us ’spiritual’ things? He cares for us much more than we can think or know, and wants to immerse us in his love.
Doug you are one of a kind but I swear I heard Cliff in this post. Are you channeling him? hahaha
Peace
Geo
I heard him too!
Thanks Geo, and yes i am ,with every heartbeat!
Love always
Doug
Audrey NZ,
Right! The Word is Jesus! He Himself is the Word!
And that Word comes to us (in His Spirit) and makes us alive, as Jesus said to Niccodemus, “when and where it wills”.
We are born dead in our sins and tresspasses and the Word comes to us, from outside of us, and we are re-born.
Good stuff!
I believe God (Jesus) lives within each of us. The word lives within each of us. We are made in his image and he lives within each of us then I believe we are all a part of each other. I don’t believe the word comes to us. It is up to us to acknowledge what is within or we can allow ourselves to conform to the world and begin covering ourselves up hiding the realness that lives within our souls. The world is an illusion.
Well said Mindy. altho I’d rather say ‘Christ’ for that Word that lives within us, because people are inclined to relate to the Jesus that walked the earth thinking he was the one that rose, whereas it was his spirit, the Christ. that rose. Jesus died, taking my humanity (and all from Adam), with him. He paid for me, therefore I am able to live, not because of his death, but because in dying he handed over his LIFE to the Father for me – a gift the Father gave within me. It is only by ‘awakening’ from the illusion the human race has been under, that we can begin to see what the Father has prepared for us. Oh that our eyes would open and ’see’
Jesus commanded us to baptize and take His supper and preach and teach about Him.
St. Paul tells us that faith comes by hearing.
These things are extra nos (outside of us), but come to us.
I believe that is the reason that Christ commanded us to do these things.
I doubt seriously that He was having us do these things for “religious” reasons.
Interesting conversation between you guys. You all seem so sure of your positions/opinions. Perhaps as you get older you will realize the freedom that comes in realizing just how little we really “know” and that it’s okay to accept that and the vulnerability that comes in knowing we really don’t know. Love and blessings to all!
Connie, I have said many times in my life that “i dont understand everything that I know”, but I know enough.
lOVE ALWAYS!
Me, too. My late husband used to say that a lot – “I don’t understand everything I know about that.” After hearing him say that over and over, I guess it finally sunk in. It’s okay to not understand. And to acknowledge that even what I think I know may not be right. As long as we know that we don’t have complete understanding and that even what we think we know may not be right, then we’re open to growth.
I know this – Judge not! Love with no conditions! I am loved by God no matter what! Love as God loves! I am created in his image which is LOVE! Love cast out all fear!!!!!!!!!!! I guess I could go on and on but the bottom line is that Jesus nailed the law to the cross for all! This he wrote on my heart and this is what I want to live by – HE LIVES within my heart.
LOVE NEVER FAILES!
Young men walk with there heads up, gazing into the heavens, the stars and the clouds , hoping for a glimpse of the essence of the universe. Old men walk with there heads lowered humbly knowing that they only need to look into there heart.
Connie,
I don’t agree. The older my Father got the more confident he was in what he had always known…it was the world that was trying to tell him that he didn’t know enough to be as confident as he was. I loved to watch him during his final days because he couldn’t wait to tell the next person that walked in the door that THIS MESSAGE IS SIMPLE and it isn’t hard to understand. People are just afraid to beilieve it. I am only 34 and I am more confident as ever about this message. The older I get the more confident I am. When I was young I was afraid. I am not afraid anymore and it feels good. This message really is simple and easy to understand.
Dealing with this pain I have for the loss of my Father?…well, I will get back to you on that.
thanks Audrey
Mom,
You are confident!! You go girl!!!!!!
Doug,
The heart does hold the truth doesn’t it
Thank you.
I believe there are some things that can be known with certainty such as LOVE. I am VERY confindent that we are to Love God and Love others. I also can believe with certainty that I can TRUST God but beyond that as far as all the “doctrine” that is out there, well, I don’t know. I am not confident at this time in my life about the whole heaven, hell, whose lost, whose saved, I really can’t say with certainty but I’m okay with that. I’m at peace in knowing that God is love and I just don’t lose sleep anymore about all the other stuff that seems to go along with religion.
I have experienced in my life time and since my Father’s death that according to several types of religious organizations most of them believe my Father is in hell or that he was punished. They considered him a false prophet so with thanks to those ignorant organizations I know that all of them have it wrong and i have it right because I know that God loves my Father. I know that my Father was not lost because I witnessed it in this world. I know that my Father was saved at the cross just as we all were and that is proof enough to me. It really is that simple. I don’t need to study and search for the truth. I found it within myself which is where God meant for me to find it all along.
Lisa, I think your daddy and mine , would tell you if they could, sleep well baby girl…..and maybe they have.
Love is not a contest. We each own it equaly. It was givin to us freely. It is ours to grow. Lisa will sleep well tonight, Mindy well sleep well tonight, and the love will grow.
love always
Mindy, It is mind blowing to think there are actually religious organizations out there who think someone like your dad would be lost. That is utterly ridiculous. If Cliff isn’t saved then absolutley no one has a chance. Like I’ve said I’m just still not absolutley certain that every single human will be saved. But, also like I’ve said I really don’t know. I kinda think that what God destroys will be the evil in us all but not the actual individual but again, I don’t know and I’m okay with that because LOVE NEVER FAILS AND GOD IS LOVE!!!!! That’s more what I mean when i say i have uncertainty about whose lost or saved BUT, I do sleep good at night and yes Doug, I’m certain both our dads are telling me sleep well baby girl. Love it!! Thanks!!l
I use to think that i could go places in my mind that others couldn’t go. That i could understand what others couldn’t feel. I was sure that i was right about everything.
Youthful exuberance is a beautiful thing. Don’t let go of it, but if you will please listen some modest advise. Always choose to listen over the dominate desire to speak.
It is easier to hear the pain of others.
Lisa,
It is ridiculous isn’t it? But they have ridiculed him even after his death, but they all didn’t know him either. They judge according to the laws of in which they create. They judge according to what they see on the surface and they are afraid. They hide behind their fears that God will punish them if they don’t believe in the “written code” so they have to punish. They have to be washed of their sins so God will know they are clean.
I wish I could say I was right about everything, but I know I have a great deal to learn, however this message is right for me and I am so glad I am no longer lost. It was finished at the cross.
God sees me as his own unique design and the same goes for everyone else and I we are perfect in the eyes of love. I may not be seen as perfect in the eyes of man, but that doesn’t matter to me anymore. I am free and I could never go back to the 4 walls that hid me from who I wanted to be and who I have become today.
The woman that kills her child is loved by God. The man that murders is loved by God, The woman that had the affairs on her husband or the man that drinks himself to tears every night are Loved by God and are not judged by God and if they live to see another day then God is with them through their journey here. It will be a rough one. They will be punished by the laws of man and they will also punish themselves. God will still walk beside them through it all because God knows the depth of a mans mind, heart and soul and he knows what might have been, but also what will be for all of us. Some of our journeys may be easier…now that we have acknowledge our perfection.
That’s another thing I do know like Nancy said, we are not to judge and for that I am so very grateful. I firmly believe that I am no better or no worse than that women who kills her child or etc. And you are exactly right God will and does walk beside them. He is there for us all and loves us all not because of good or bad we do or don’t do but because we are His!
“I use to think that i could go places in my mind that others couldn’t go. That i could understand what others couldn’t feel. I was sure that i was right about everything.
Youthful exuberance is a beautiful thing. Don’t let go of it, but if you will please listen some modest advise. Always choose to listen over the dominate desire to speak.
It is easier to hear the pain of others.”
Amen.
It is interesting to me how there are always those who think their message is the right one as opposed to all others. That everyone who doesn’t agree is wrong or simply not as high a level, or whatever. You don’t have to go to church to be dogmatic about what you believe. And when you become dogmatic, you stop growing. Yes, I’ve seen dogmatism in church, but also in other groups of people.
I’m not saying I don’t have certain way of thinking and believing. I do. But I realize that I am limited and, as Doug said so beautifully, it’s important to choose to listen over the dominant desire to speak.
It is important to listen. So many wonderful things to hear and to be able to add to yourself. Listening can really open a persons mind up, but when you get the message that God intended for you then you just want to shout it from the roof tops because it feels as if you have been set free from the chains that oraganized religion holds you with and I will not apologize for shouting that out. Do I think I am on a higher level or whatever?…. If I am to be honest I have to say yes I do, but do I think that makes me better than anyone else?…No, thats absolutely impossible now that I have made it here. Once I got this message I looked at human life so differently because I saw us all as one, equal and connected! I believe that once you get this message you can never go back. Each day I grow more and more into who I really am. I don’t believe it is even possible to become dogmatic when you finally get it. Your mind becomes open to so many incredible things….
As my Father wrote once:
“I don’t wish for people to know peace. I wish for them to know who they really are and then peace will be their’s for a multitude of lifetimes.”
I don’t see myself as limited and I don’t believe I ever will. My life is limitless.
Hey Mindy. I love you. Mahatma Gandhi said “Be the change you wish to see in the world”. You are doing that.
Of course it’s possible to become dogmatic when you think you finally get it and you think you’re at a higher level that other folks. That’s when someone is most likely to be dogmatic. Dogmatism is simply a statement of a point of view as if it were an established fact. We are all in danger of thinking our points of view are the right ones and that others are wrong or unenlightened. Attend a political rally and you see it. Attend an AA meeting and you see it. Attend church or read someone’s blog and you see it. It is only human to think our ideas are better or right and to feel most comfortable in the company of those who think like we do, or who are willing to be convinced to think like we do. What puzzles me is that there are those who want to blast “religion”, yet don’t see that what they are doing is the same thing that they are rejecting in “religion”.
We can agree that unconditional love is the answer. But, what exactly is love? Some would say it’s accepting any kind of behavior as okay. Others might say, no, it’s important to confront someone who is engaging in behavior that is harmful to themselves or others. It might seem unloving to just accept any kind of behavior without confronting issues that are sure to cause harm.
Certainly it’s important not to judge in the sense of thinking we can take the place of God and know someone’s eternal destiny, or to think one person is more important or valuable based on their behavior. But, in another sense, we make judgments all the time. We couldn’t function if we didn’t. While I don’t think I’m any better than someone who commits murder or cheats on her husband or stays drunk all of the time, I can make the judgment that those behaviors are harmful. God doesn’t base his love on our behavior, and for that I am grateful, but there are certain natural laws that he put in place, and when we go beyond those laws we suffer unpleasant or even tragic consequences. It’s just how it is.
With maturity comes the ability to be at peace in the midst of uncertainty, and to be okay with vulnerability. Lessons I am still learning. Life experiences (such as what I am going through right now with my mother as she faces declining health) are valuable in showing how far I am from arriving and, at the same time, helping me to arrive. Not that I ever expect to totally arrive!
I hope that nothing I have said is offensive, as that is not my intention, but sometimes I offend without meaning to. One thing I enjoyed so much about Cliff was that we could express our thoughts and ideas to each other and know that we could disagree and still love each other deeply. I miss him very much, but I know that my loss doesn’t hold a candle to those of you who knew him as husband, father, brother, grandfather, or uncle, and who had daily contact with him. Please know that I love you all and my heart continues to be with you.
Love always, Connie
Connie, my dear friend, you have not offended anyone. It is through discussions such as these that each of us grow.
“We can agree that unconditional love is the answer. But, what exactly is love? Some would say it’s accepting any kind of behavior as okay. Others might say, no, it’s important to confront someone who is engaging in behavior that is harmful to themselves or others. It might seem unloving to just accept any kind of behavior without confronting issues that are sure to cause harm.”
I dont think it is unconditional love for others that allows us to achieve peace, because we will fall beneath that standard at times. I do think it is knowing,without question, that God has unconditional love for us, and with that belief there will be peace.
Love always, Doug
Religion’s message is that you must get right with God to know God or be excepted by God. God’s message is – how can you say you love God whom you have not seen but not love your brother whom you have seen? Who is my brother? Wow, that means even Hitler or others like Hitler are my brother and created in God’s image, that image being LOVE. Of course there are consequences to our actions, but nothing separates us from the love of God. Man separates from that love by his judgements, those he puts on others and himself. Do you think you have the insight to know Hitler or others like him. The question here is, what is the love of God? UNCONDITIONAL? For me the answer is that God is the all knowing God. He is the only one who will ever know my complete story and therefore is the only one who can ever make a judgement on my story. The love of God will never be based on man and his judgements because they are always wrong. I want to love like God and I will try until I take my last breath. Cliff said while in his dieing that he didn’t see the person that had come to see him before he died but he saw LOVE. Lots of people came to see him! Man makes judgements on things he sees with his human eyes but look at the spirit of man and try to ask yourself what does God see. Cliff saw what God saw
Religion is almost on every street corner not excepting his brothers on the other street corner. Really sad don’t you think! They each say that they have found the truth and that truth being the way to God. We must find our way to each other and that can only happens when we see that we are one, yes I am one with Hitler because I am one with God. I believe I have found the truth and he said that truth (love) shall set you free. I am free!
The term “religion” covers a lot of territory. Some in organized religion are as you have characterized it – demanding and judgmental, and not accepting of others’ point of view. There are many others who aren’t like that at all. I think it is a judgmental statement to characterize all who are in “religion” as fitting the caricature that you have painted – “not accepting brothers on the other street corner.” Interesting to me that you can extend grace to Hitler, but speak in such a hostile way about people who go to church, most of whom you don’t even know.
I agree with Doug that true peace is found when we realize that God loves us each unconditionally. Then we realize that our main job here is to extend that love to everyone we touch, and not to judge them or their motives.
I don’t read any of what Nancy is saying as judgmental, but I do think she is making a very good point that will help us understand what is happening today. We need to look into this further. We all have the capability to act as little Hitlers. Our righteousness, no matter how hard we try to ‘do good’ ends up being just as filthy as the worst crime because we fall short of the mark, and it doesn’t matter by how much or how little, nothing of our righteousness will get us into the Kingdom. So we stand in the same dock as Hitler, Mugabe and many many others.
.
We carry the enemy around with us – it’s our depraved minds that we’ve inherited. We are a dual people, human + spirit, but we live mostly from our humanity and cannot understand the spiritual world let alone ’see’ it. However as Nancy has said, the love of God is poured out on ALL mankind, whether we feel it or not, no-one is left out, so much so that he opened a way for us to enter back into his love and his friendship at the very moment we got separated from him. JC’s mission was to show us how to restore that fellowship with our REAL Father, and to reveal to us where he lives, his Kingdom within us. As JC said,
If any man will come after me let him deny himself (his ego) and take up his cross ( be prepared to put that self-righteous one to death) and follow me to Calvary (see our humanity – that part of us that constantly misses the mark nailed with Jesus and DEAD). Whosoever saves his natural life that animates his body, shall lose it. But whosoever shall voluntarily lay down his natural life FOR MY SAKE, shall discover his true life that is ordained and designed to fulfil the purpose of our REAL Father on this earth.
The other thing that JC declared was that the Kingdom of God has come (present continuous tense) and IS WITHIN US. As we touch this realm we FEEL the love that is the Father, drawing us, wooing us. Let’s not just stop here, wonderful as this love is but let’s follow him further so that we may reveal him to the needy world, by making visible IN US that ONE within us.
Connie,
I do not judge those people inside those buildings, but I do judge what those Churches are teaching and for me it is wrong. To me it just isn’t real. It does not touch my spirit in anyway shape or form. Their message teach the “pue sitter” to be a hypocrite because you simply cannot love God if you aren’t loving your brother. Religion seperates (I’d say that is pretty obious), it teaches self-righteousness, it teaches fear and I simply cannot be a part of that teaching. Many wonderful people go to Church and do not have a clue what they are being taught. They are like robots walking around programmed by someone else to live according to the law. I have to be true and real to myself. I cannot be a part of something that LIMITS me to who I am and Church does that. I will do me best in life to look at every person I meet and see them with the eyes of God.
If your comfort is going to Church and leaving feeling like you learned more about who you are then have at it. It doesn’t affect my life any. I just truly cannot be a part of an organaztion that teaches fear. A place that teaches my child she has to do something to get right with God or that she can never be perfect or that she is limited. I will encourage her to acknowledge what is and always will be within her and that is the spirit of Love.
Much of the discussion seems to be around the teaching in a church of any kind verses the teaching of the spirit of love. Our perceptions of what is good are always subject to the the experiences that we have had with it.
If i give a child a, that has never seen an apple, a green unripe granny apple and ask it to define it, the child will say that it is a sour fruit, but if i give a child a ripe red Delicious apple, it will say its a sweet fruit and ask for more, but if that same child continues to eat that fruit and bites into a worm, it will no longer partake of it.
I have known many very dedicated people that spent there entire lives serving God in in a lot of different churches and have past on peacefully believing they would be in the arms of Jesus, those people never tasted the worm in there apple.
When dose one think that there are part of a church? Is it only on Sunday morning, when you walk through the doors of a beautiful decorated brick and mortar building or is it each time you open the page to Bold grace? How many people must gather , in the name of Jesus Christ, to be a Church?
I love knowing that i am part of a chuch that is dedacated to the sprit of Gods love. i believe there will be a time that it will be not just the greatest but the larges chuch on earth. A church with no windows or doors. A church that all are welcome at anytime day or night, and you can leave without fear or guilt.
Mindy,
I understand your concern with what some churches teach. I am just asking that you not lump all churches together and assume that they are all like what you found in your church experience. The church I now attend doesn’t teach any of the things that you guys portray. I am simply asking you to be more open-minded and less judgmental of churches in general. Your comments about self-righteousness and fear and walking around like robots may be true for what you found. But it is not true for all churches and certainly not true for all individuals in church settings. It is not fair for you to make such a sweeping generalization based on your limited experience. While I can understand your decision not to have church be a part of your life based on your negative experiences, I would appreciate it if you would not put out the propaganda that all churches are like that. Because they aren’t.
When you make remarks like that it does nothing but separate you from your brothers and sisters who are simply at a different place on the journey and who choose to be a part of a formal church setting. You say that you believe in unconditional love and that you want to see every person you meet with the eyes of God. You speak of truth and freedom, but as long as you have these kinds of resentments against people you don’t even know, you aren’t really free at all. This is just my observation based on the words I’ve read from you here. I realize that you probably aren’t going to pay much attention to anything I have to say because your mind is already made up, but I just thought I’d give it one more try!
Doug,
Awesome analogy with the apple. I also like the story of the blind men and the elephant where one describes the elephant by the trunk, one by the legs, and one by the body. They get 3 very different descriptions because of their own experience but when they are open to all 3 views, they get the best picture of the actual elephant.