Fearless Faith and Negative Nigel

It’s been a minute since I last posted. I’ve been waiting for the perfect inspiration because I like to use everyday happenings to show how God is everywhere.

As many of you know, last November I moved to Auburn, Alabama to be a floater technician at Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine. This all happened in about a month and it was a whirlwind of finding an apartment, moving to another state, and figuring out this whole “adulting” thing (like paying bills and grocery shopping).

It’s finally deciding to be Spring in Alabama for longer than a day which means birds are singing, flowers are blooming, and races are waiting to be ran. While driving or walking around this still-new-to-me college town, I have noticed something that inspired me to write a blogpost.

Have you every seen the smaller birds chasing the larger birds? This happens when a larger bird, such as a crow or hawk, gets too close to a smaller bird’s nest, breeding ground, territory. Now, let’s say the smaller bird is Fearless Faith, and the larger bird is all those negative feelings like fear, stress, worry, anxiety, etc., etc. We’ll call the larger bird Negative Nigel. You are the nest.

Photo Credit: https://www.cater.com/catering-life-sam-aidun/

Fearless Faith has no problem shooing Negative Nigel away from her nest. She may be small, but she is mighty and is not going to let his dark shadow take over her nest. Now, you may know the verse I am about to quote:

"You don't have enough faith," Jesus told them. "I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it would move. Nothing would be impossible." (Matthew 17:20 NLT).

Fearless Faith is persistent in keeping away Negative Nigel away from her nest, as long as her nest needs her to do so.

Let’s flip this. Fearless Faith is the larger bird and Negative Nigel is the smaller bird. Both have the same mission, just different names. Still following? It only takes a small amount of negativity to drive away faith, especially when the negativity is already at home in the nest.

“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matthew 6:22-23 NIV).

If the negativity is already there, faith can’t settle in.

If your faith is in your nest, negativity is not. If you let negativity, stress, anxiousness, fear, and all of those scary monsters get comfy in your nest, faith will have a hard time moving in.

Next time you see a smaller bird chasing a larger bird, take inventory and make sure Fearless Faith is on your side.