A while ago I wrote a post about a lesson I learned from an excursion at a sanctuary for Birds of prey. Even though I get messages every once in a while from people who have read the post, It has been a long time since I have thought about it.

A few nights ago however our family was watching a great cartoon series called “Redwall“.

In the cartoon a few little mice are taking care of a Red Kite who has a broken wing. The bird starts freaking out because it does not want to be helped so they have to give her a sleeping potion so they can set her wing.

The Redwall Abbey Monk (mouse) says to the nurse, “Cornflower”, something very interesting.

“There is nothing more dangerous than an injured animal”

This line from the little mouse struck me. It is a sad but frequent affair that people in the church tend to HURT others out of their own hurt.  Like my first post on this subject, the truth is we love to hide our hurt and really only ask for help when we are at a critical state. It also seems that regardless if we hide it or not we end up injuring others as we flail around in our lives.

Broken people truly do have sharp edges.

“By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35)

How can we show God’s love while we are wounding others?
How can we avoid exacerbating our current injuries?

The Bible says in Ephesians that our conflict is spiritual and not against flesh and blood. We need to remind ourselves to be aware of situations where we are attacking the wrong thing.

“Be alert and always keep on praying” (Ephesians 6:18)
We need to be vigilant in prayer. Prayer is our defense. Prayer is our bulletproof vest. A lack of prayer life makes you vulnerable.

Galatians 5:22-23 says “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control…”

Take an account of the fruit in your life. Is the Spirit visible in us. Do we pour out the goodness of the Lord, or are we constantly scraping our open festering wounds on anything that we encounter?

Another side of this is made clear in this quote:

“We have been called to heal wounds, to unite what has fallen apart, and to bring home those who have lost their way.”

― St. Francis of Assisi

As I was thinking, praying and reading about these birds I came across an article that said: “An injured bird will not know you are trying to help it and will resist your efforts in whatever way it can…When rescuing these birds the rescuer must take precautions to avoid being stabbed, bitten or clawed by the “rescuee.””

As much as we have been called to heal wounds we must be covered in prayer and walk forward, careful to stay in tune with the holy spirit. We need the “covering” to avoid being stabbed, bitten, or clawed. We need to be walking in love and trying to be like Christ by not judging others to insure we don’t injure people more.

Can we stop the church from hurting itself?
We live in a fallen world and there will always be pain and suffering till our Lord returns, but… WE can work on trying to be more like Christ. We can seek to love others in the same way He loves us. We can be willing to step into a dangerous situation just to help one scared “Bird of Prey”.

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.” Phil 4:8