Don’t Overdo It

“Rest is best,” said the doctor. “Chemotherapy is hard on your body and you need to take it easy.”

This doctor was sounding like the person I was married to. Both were concerned for my health but I only live with one of them. Peggy was constantly coaching me, “Now don’t overdo it honey.” She must’ve said those words a hundred times since my cancer journey started.

Not overdoing it is hard for me to do; because overdo, is what I do.

It's difficult to rest when there are so many things that need to be overdone: there is grass to cut, bark to spread, and ditches to dig. How does a man knocking on the door of seventy years just sit down and do nothing?”

Peggy had a solution. “Birds, birds are the answer. We’ll get some bird feeders and watch the birds eat.” Peggy’s voice, along with her enthusiasm filled the room.

“Birds? I’d rather overdo something else.”

She persisted. “Come on, it’ll be fun and relaxing, just what the doctor ordered.”

“Sorry, honey. I can’t overdo birds. I think it’s a sin.”

The enthusiasm bled from the room as Peggy turned to look at me. “What in the world are you talking about? Who told you it was a sin to feed the birds?”

“The Bible, it’s in the Bible somewhere. I picked up my Bible and started leafing through it, trying to find the verse I was thinking about. I know it’s in here somewhere. The verse goes something like, “Look at the birds, they don’t do anything and God feeds them… or something like that, that’s my gross paraphrase.”

“Yes, very gross,” Peggy’s was smiling. “Try looking in Matthew Chapter 6. I think you’ll find what you’re looking for there.”

“So, you know the verse too! See what I mean?” The Bible says God feeds the birds, so that means we’re not supposed to do it. I don’t think we should get in the way.” I flashed Peggy my best told you so look.

Peggy chimed in with a yeah-but opinion, “Yea but, why can’t God use us to feed the birds. I think that’s an example of divine providence intersecting with human volition.”

“What did you just say?”

“You mean the intersection of divine providence with human volition, that part?”

“Yea, that part. You do realize that we’re talking about bird feeders here.”

Neither of us wanted to talk about divine providence colliding with human volition, so we decided to buy some bird feeders.

A few hours later, yours truly, Captain Overdone It, came home from the store with twenty-five pounds of bird seed and five bird feeders. One of the bird feeders was equipped with a camera so we could get up close and personal watching birds eat. All this was supposed to help me rest.

It didn’t work.

Unbeknownst to us, our property is home to Leaping Larry, a twelve inch tall Eastern Gray squirrel that holds the World Record for a vertical leap from a standing position. Larry can jump FOUR FEET straight up without a running start. That’s four times his height which is incredible. Do you know how famous you’d be if you could jump four times your height and eat large quantities of bird seed?”

Leaping Larry was very fond of the bird house equipped with the camera. He was constantly jumping up there and eating all the bird seed. Each time Larry jumped up to the bird house he triggered the cameras. Consequently, I have multiple pictures of Leaping Larry’s expanding backside.

It’s not just Leaping Larry that is causing the problem. It’s the birds too. Birds are sloppy eaters. They spill bird seed all over the ground beneath the feeders. The only one happy about that arrangement is an obese rodent that lives on our neighbors property.

The new bird feeders have kept me busy. I haven’t even thought about my upcoming appointments this week. These will be the appointments that determine if the chemotherapy worked in shrinking the tumor and if the cancer has metastasized or not. Those are pretty big topics that could’ve caused a lot of mental distress, but they didn’t. Thanks to the birds, I was led to these scriptures, and they have given me some comfort. .

Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?

Matthew 6:26-27 (ESV)