My wife wonders how I can remember things that happened fifty years ago. The truth is that I can’t remember everything. For instance, geometry or algebra solutions packed up and left my mind soon after the last test. To be honest, many of those facts left my mind BEFORE the last test.
Jokes, now, that’s another story. I can remember jokes and funny stories for a long time. I remember watching an old Bugs Bunny cartoon made before I was born. Several buzzards from the same family were flying home with their prey. Two of the brothers had captured cows or horses or something. And the goofy brother, (according to my research his name was “Beaky”), came flying home with a bumble bee in his talons!

“I’m bringing home a baby bumble bee,” he sang. His mother was less than impressed with her slow-witted son. I liked him because he made me laugh.

But, in reality, the cartoon was way off.  Buzzards feed mostly on dead things. If you see them circling you can be sure that the Road Kill Café isn’t far away.  I won’t go into detail but if a buzzard invites you lunch, (which might happen in a cartoon), I advise you to politely decline.

The hummingbird is different. He buzzes in, wings flapping at 60-80 beats per second. According to the website howtoenjoyhummingbirds.com “…During courtship dives, a hummingbird can reach speeds up to 60 miles per hour.”

That’s not so remarkable. Teen-age boys go much faster during courtship, but it’s still not bad for a bird.
These little birds zip and buzz around flowers looking for nectar. Now we’re talking. One thing that I do remember from a long-ago college class is this: my biology teacher observed, “You are what you eat.”

Personally, I’d rather hang with hummingbirds than with buzzards.

Christians are kind of like that. We become what we eat and we can tell what we’ve been eating by the words that come out of our mouth. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks,” the Word says.

Roadkill in, roadkill out

But the smell of roadkill must be attractive because human nature seems to gravitate to it. When you’re reading, which headlines attract your attention? “Tom C. and what’s her name are getting divorced!” “Guess Who Got Caught Doing What That He Shouldn’t Have Been Doing?” Or, “Local Volonteers Work Together To Help the Handicapped”?

You remember the verse we talked about last week? “Finally, my friends, keep your minds on whatever is true, pure, right, holy, friendly, and proper. Don’t ever stop thinking about what is truly worthwhile and worthy of praise.” (Philippians 4:8, CEV)

What are we filling our minds with?

I visited a Christian website last week and they listed the topics that were the most searched for on their site: “abortion, Islam, persecution, homosexuality, South Sudan, religious freedom, disaster relief, Nigeria, Boko Haram, Barack Obama.”

Makes you want to scratch your head. A Christian website but Jesus isn’t even mentioned among their most popular articles? He didn’t even make the top 25! Nor did “peace with God,” or “joy in the Lord.”

There were lots of articles which get my blood to boiling and make me want to fight but nothing that made me love Jesus more.

Most of us wouldn’t fill our mouth and mind with vulgar language (I hope) but we fill our minds constantly with negativism, criticism and other toxic materials.

“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.” (NIV)

There’s another thing about the hummingbird that many people don’t know–percentagewise, the hummingbird’s brain represents 4.2% of its body weight, the largest among all birds. Wonder if eating nectar has anything to do with that.

And I wonder about a buzzard’s brain. Eating all that dead stuff can’t help the light burn too brightly upstairs.

And me? Am I looking for nectar like a hummingbird or stalking dead stuff like a buzzard?

Images: www.microsoftoffice.com (images)

Hummm …

“If we can’t lead ourselves, we are not qualified to lead others. Character matters.” Michael Hyatt

Smile …
One day my prince will come. And my daddy will smack him. (seen on a little girl’s shirt)