Stay don't stray 27:8 Like a bird that strays from its (her) nest is a man who strays from his home Picture: a bird that leaves its nest and does not find its way back and so is in danger.
Some say this is a verse about banishment and its ill effects. Others see it as a warning against leaving home or abandoning your post. It condemns the quitter, the runaway, the wanderer, the rolling stone, the drifter, the rootless man. Again and again such a life is celebrated in literature and popular culture. Think of W H Davies’s ‘Supertramp’ for example. The contemporary Portuguese Canadian singer Nelly Furtado has an interesting song using the very image used here.
Some say this is a verse about banishment and its ill effects. Others see it as a warning against leaving home or abandoning your post. It condemns the quitter, the runaway, the wanderer, the rolling stone, the drifter, the rootless man. Again and again such a life is celebrated in literature and popular culture. Think of W H Davies’s ‘Supertramp’ for example. The contemporary Portuguese Canadian singer Nelly Furtado has an interesting song using the very image used here.
"I’m like a bird, I’ll only fly away, I don’t know where my soul is … where my home is."
The picture of a bird flying is very attractive but here it expresses a young woman’s inability to settle down in a relationship, though her partner is clearly wants it. ‘You’re faith in me brings me to tears’ she sings. Such attitudes abound in a society where young people fly the nest before they are ready to set up their own in a proper manner. Many are tempted to think that getting away from home is the answer to their problems – the teenager who argues with his parents, the young man looking for adventure, the spouse who has fallen out with their other half. Here, however, it is given the thumbs down. The truth is that such a supposed solution to a man’s problems will seldom work.
The wider application relates to the unlikelihood of achieving much in any area if we do not settle to the task, if we are not at home with it. Stickability is an important virtue. That applies to anything from finishing a task at your desk or workbench or finishing a book (reading or writing) to fathering a godly family, pastoring a church, governing a country. Spurgeon says ‘The unrest of that man’s mind, and the instability of his conduct who is constantly making a change of his position and purpose, augurs no success for any of his adventures.’
The wider application relates to the unlikelihood of achieving much in any area if we do not settle to the task, if we are not at home with it. Stickability is an important virtue. That applies to anything from finishing a task at your desk or workbench or finishing a book (reading or writing) to fathering a godly family, pastoring a church, governing a country. Spurgeon says ‘The unrest of that man’s mind, and the instability of his conduct who is constantly making a change of his position and purpose, augurs no success for any of his adventures.’
No comments:
Post a Comment