The becoming necessary to the being

Today was my first day at my much anticipated, much celebrated, and very appreciated new day job. And my first activity on this first day (right after oohing and aahing over my lovely office and figuring out which key opens which door) was to attend the monthly management team meeting.

You know you're in special place when the first person who greets you in the morning says "oh, we're all so glad you're here." And when the first question your new boss asks is "how are you feeling - are you nervous at all?" But when your management team meeting starts with a devotional that has you craughing, well, it really makes you wonder.

SC2 shared with us why struggle matters. It's a physical and spiritual imperative. It's how we grow, how we gain strength. How we learn. As Sheila Walsh (the author of the devotional) says,

[I was ] told by an ornithologist that unless a baby bird struggles to get out of the shell it will not have the strength to survive. The very act of struggling to make it to the outside gives it what it will need to learn to fly. I remember thinking, “How brilliant of God to render the “becoming” necessary to the “being.”

What especially stood out for me was the image of the baby bird. Having been wrapped up for the last few months in nudging my fledglings from the nest, and creating my empty nest, the image of the baby bird struggling to break free was especially poignant for me. How often we want to break them out of the egg shell, or to keep them safe inside it. And either option causes only death. Only in allowing the fledgling to find it's own way can it also learn to fly on its own.

It was a good day. And a good reminder. And I'm so excited to go back tomorrow.