I have seen many human characteristics and actions in my backyard chickens. One of my observations about one particular chicken illustrates what is so common and destructive in people.
One Golden Comet hen was the victim of the other chickens’ cruel treatment against her. I noticed it when I discovered the one hen had many of her feathers plucked out. At other times I would see other hens, for no apparent reason to me, go up to her and peck her. Over time, the bullying was so intense that the abused hen was bound to the hen house and could not even go to the outside run.
What finally broke my heart was seeing the bullies chase her to a nesting box. To flee the hen-pecking of the others, she would cower in the back of her nest. The other chickens would unmercifully continue to peck at her while she was trapped in the box.
I tried to dissuade the vicious treatment but to no avail. One day I could not bear the cruelty anymore. I picked up the battered and frightened hen and put her outside the hen house. She was free from bullying. She had her food and water and could go anywhere she wanted on the property.
After thinking that she would be glad for the freedom and escape her tormentors, I noticed a surprising behavior. Instead of walking around the large property and eating whatever she wanted, I found her staying very close to her past prison. She was safe on the outside of the pen’s chicken wire from their pecking, but she was continually within feet of the other chickens. Even though her experience inside the chicken house was torturous, she would not leave it. She stayed as close as she could to those who did her harm.
Many people allow themselves to be in a similar situation. A sin or mistake has ruined or made one’s life abhorrent, yet that will not stop the activity or their involvement with it. Rather than go where it is safe and far away from what hurt their life, they keep coming back to where they suffered great loss or side effects.
Many have found themselves reaping terrible health problems from their smoking habit. It has weakened or even destroyed much of their health. Often after they get some relief from the habit or even stopped for a while, they find themselves puffing again on the same thing that hurt them previously.
Drunks often have their lives destroyed by alcohol. Not only has the addiction bound them to the bottle, but their body is slowly weakened by the drink. Marriage or family problems also were caused by their compulsion. However, after a successful rehabilitation helped them get freedom from the controlling power of alcohol, they find themselves back on the bottle and putting themselves again in a losing situation.
An adulterer gets caught in his sin. He lost his wife, children, and things for which he worked hard. Alimony robs him of even enjoying the fruits of his labor. After finally finding another wife, he allows his eyes and mind to wander and again becomes unfaithful.
A woman gets sexually involved with a man and finds herself pregnant. He leaves her, and she is left to raise the child by herself. Her life is a constant strain and has difficulty working and rearing the child by herself. However, it is not long until she is sexually involved with another man and not married.
So many will not learn from past mistakes! They continue to do what has hurt them in the past, yet they have not learned their lesson and return to the same place or involvement that previously scarred and ruined their life. They are no different than the hen-pecked chicken that would not forsake those who were cruel to her.
“As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.” Prov. 26:11
If you have respite from past mistakes or sins, keep far from what previously entrapped you. Some need to change friends that encourage wrong behavior or involvement in iniquity. Others need to avoid places where sin’s temptations overtook them. Many need to make it hard not to fall for the enticement that bound them previously. Something needs to change, or it will not be long until one is back in the same condition.
No one will be unscathed from sin’s grasp. Put yourself far away from its hold. Flee it before it is too late.
“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? 15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial [a personification of all that is bad]? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel [have the same thinking as an unsaved person]? 16 And what agreement hath the temple of God [a believer] with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,” II Corinthians 6:14-17
“Maybe you should take the advice of people who love you and are concerned for your well-being when they warn you to stay away from a place, person, or group of people! Sometimes those looking from a distance see things that those that are close do not see.” — B. B.
