By Brad Campbell –

Just at thought to help start your week.

This week’s photo is one of those that I got simply because I happened to be in the right place at the right time.  Nothing extraordinary about it.  But as we walked around downtown Seattle, in amongst the people that were certainly very ‘interesting’ indeed, we also paid attention to the other wildlife around us.  Because we were near our nation’s western coastline, there were many seagulls all around.  Some were actually very large and would have made a small dog run for his life, I believe.

One of those birds, the one you see here, stood defiantly in front of a nearby sign.  The sign, of course, reads, “All pets must be on a leash,” and, “Please clean up after your pet.”  No leash for this animal.  Going to do as it pleased where it pleased.  Ignoring the signs, it roamed on its own with no one to clean up after it.  Certainly a seagull is not anyone’s pet, but this one apparently knew that fact and marched the sidewalk as if to say, “I will not be stopped, I will do life on my own terms, it’s my way or the highway, no one can tell me what to do.”  The people of the world seem to roam around us Christians boasting their ability to get away with whatever they want, while we, God’s people, are trying our best to allow the Lord to lead and control our lives.

We may not speak those exact words, “I will do life on my own terms, and no one can tell me what to do,” but as we roam about life’s dirty sidewalks this week, I pray we aren’t living those words.  The Lord gives us instruction in His Word about restraining ourselves and following His will and not ours.  He also reminds us that He does things such as answering our prayers on His own terms in His own time and not ours.

We may walk around ignoring the signs, but one day it will catch up with us.  Defiant we will no longer be, and we will answer to One Who created us and gave us the life we now live.  Pets belong to their master.  We Christians belong to our Master.  We should be restrained in our living, perhaps as if on a leash, so to speak.  And we must not leave a mess for those coming along behind us.  Maybe you’ve never heard these words before… Don’t be a seagull.

Just a thought.