Like A Duck

I sat and watched these beauties for over 30 minutes one day this past week. As I was watching them, they started bathing. Man, ducks are ruthless as they bathe! It’s a constant cycle of rooting around in their feathers searching for every little speck of dirt, plucking, rinsing, and then looking again to be sure.

I was in a place where I had complete solitude and only the sounds of nature surrounding me. I was able to think.

And what I realized is that Christ followers could stand to be a lot more like ducks. That *I* could stand to be more like ducks.

We are called to examine our hearts, minds, and actions and to get rid of anything that separates us from God. Like those ducks taking the time to be sure they cleaned all of the physical dirt from their bodies, so are we called to spend as much time as necessary searching and repenting before the Father.

When we do the hard work of self-examination and repent, when we allow the pain that inevitably comes from finding and plucking the sins we’ve given a stronghold, God is there to wash it away and offer comfort as we heal.

But, we have to do our part. We have to be brutally honest with ourselves. We can’t stop until we’ve found all of the dirt, knowing that as soon as we leave the place of repentance, we’ll be back again with more to clean the next time. Like ducks while they bathe.

Friends, when’s the last time you spent more than just a couple of minutes in prayer? How much of that time was spent with you crying out for His forgiveness so the veil of sin could be removed and you could move fully into His presence? What voices have you allowed to over power that of the Almighty?

Let’s be more like ducks and see what God does as we grow closer to Him.

“Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.” Proverbs 28:13