Scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 2 Peter 3:3 (NIV)
We can benefit from time outdoors, getting into nature and away from screens. Like grandma used to say, “fresh air and sunshine are good for you.” The other day while walking in the mountains, the silence was broken by the shrill call of one and then two crows. I turned around to see them exploding out of the trees, flying away, when right behind them I saw the reason for their noise. A regal hawk came soaring over the crest of the hill. It struck me how the crows appeared so upset about the hawk, escaping to the south, while the raptor seemingly ignored them, circling higher and higher in the other direction until he disappeared from sight.
It’s like a parable. In life, we will encounter people who, like the crows, are noisy and disruptive. They may make snide remarks, send cutting texts, gossip behind our backs, post ugly comments on “social media,” etc. Our mere presence will “set them off.”
But the hawk, clearly the more powerful, faster, and majestic of the birds, ignored the crows and went about his business, letting the wind currents carry him higher and higher. The more you know God’s plan for and anointing on your life, and the more “comfortable you are in your own skin,” you too can ignore the noisy detractors and “rise above.”
The Bible warns us people will mock us. “Above all, understand this: In the last days blatant scoffers will come, being propelled by their own evil urges” 2 Peter 3:3 (NET). In fact, in 2 Timothy 3:1-5, Paul sounds this extended warning:
“But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power; avoid such people as these” (NASB).
Take the next step: In life, be the regal raptor and not the raucous crow. And when the “crows” around you make a racket, as much as possible, “avoid such people as these” and rise to the higher level.
S.D.G./S.G.D.