The random thoughts of a Christian parrot
People are often surprised to hear that my favourite food is chillies. Or, to be precise, the seeds from inside chillies. Unlike mammals, most birds are immune to the heat and effects of chilli seeds. This means I can have great fun! If visitors come to our house, I will deliberately try to kiss them on the lips knowing full-well that there is still some chilli residue on my beak. I then count to ten, waiting for their reaction. It never fails! The hotter the chilli, the better the outcome!
Photography: Claudio Sepúlveda Geoffroy
And if you ever have a problem with squirrels or other animals eating your wild bird food, all you have to do is mix it with some chilli powder. It always works a treat!
Humans, so often, want to push the boundaries of common sense, and try things that aren’t necessarily good for them. At our Summer village fete, there’s always a chilli-eating competition. Contestants have to eat a total of ten different chillies. The first one is fairly mild. But by the time they get to numbers eight, nine and ten, the heat is approaching atom bomb proportions! The eventual “winner” normally staggers away at the end, bent-over double, sweating like a pig, with tears streaming down their face. So why do humans do it?
From a parrot’s perspective, humans can be very hard to understand. They all know that taking illegal drugs, drinking excessive alcohol, sniffing aerosol cans and smoking are things that are extremely bad for them. And yet around the world, millions upon millions of humans do these things every single day. Others dabble with the occult, or drive their car or motorbike recklessly, or eat unhealthy kinds of food. They all know it’s bad for them, yet so many humans still do it. Why? Is it all about daring to dare, or the thrill of flirting with danger? Or simply running blind without thinking about the consequences?
It could be argued that lemmings like to flirt with danger every time they jump over a cliff edge. But not too many of them crawl away after landing.
Some things in this world can be too hot for humans to handle. When dare and bravado take over from common sense, disaster is likely to follow. And of course, disaster causes untold grief and suffering for families, friends and all kinds of other folk.
God didn’t create us to be reckless and self-centred. And yet humans have a track-record of it. The greatest act of blind recklessness in history was the murder of Jesus Christ upon the cross. Humans seem compelled to flirt with acts of self-destruction…….. But it doesn’t always have to be like this. God created us to learn, to grow, to evolve and to change. To become wiser with age. To become less obsessed with the physical things in life, and more pre-occupied with the spiritual. Because it’s spiritual growth that will ultimately bring us inner peace and lead us to Heaven. It’s just as the Apostle Paul writes in his first letter to the Corinthians:
“The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them….” (1 Corinthians:2:14).
Do you feel the spirit of God inside your being right now? Or are you bent double by the burning anger of too many chillies in your stomach?
