The Orchard Group

by Paul S. Williams
Chairman, Orchard Group Inc.
Updated Weekly 

Let Me Try Just One More Time

I was sitting with our board chairman at an outdoor restaurant in Phoenix. Under the warm Arizona sun we discussed the general state of our ministry. We are in a good place right now with lots of growth and healthy new churches. It was not always that way.

As we talked, I heard a racket from the top of a shade umbrella next to our table. I looked up to see a mockingbird with the tie string from the umbrella in his beak. The poor bird did not know any better and thought, Hey, unused string, just what I need for the nest I’m building for my wife. He did not realize one end of the string was attached to the umbrella.

The mockingbird however, was undaunted. He kept putting the string in his beak and trying to fly away. He would go about 12 inches, the length of the string, and be pulled down onto the umbrella with a loud thwap. Every time he reached the end of his self-imposed tether he tumbled onto the umbrella shade again. Not once did he let the string out of his beak.

This went on for two or three minutes until the mockingbird finally let go and just sat there, staring at the string with his little cocked head. I was reminded of an oft-quoted definition of insanity—doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

I thought surely the little bird would fly away, but no, he grabbed the string one last time. This time though, he let go after a few short seconds and flew off to easier pickings, I suppose, maybe a tire iron or a lawn statue.

Throughout my first decade in New York I often felt like the mockingbird, flung to the ground before I could even get started. Unlike the bird, however, I learned fairly quickly that sometimes you just have to let go. The task is beyond your abilities and you just have to let go. Then lo and behold you realize it was not the task that was beyond you at all, it was only your approach to the task. It was only your insistence on doing the task your own way. It was only your own ego run amuck that was stopping you from seeing the futility of your wild thrashings about. Your own stubborn pride stopped you from getting the perspective you needed.

I could just see the mockingbird talking to his wife later that afternoon. “I’m telling you, Honey, you just can’t build a nest around here. We’re going to have to go back to Akron.” If he was lucky, the mockingbird heard the voice of God, ironically sounding a lot like his wife, saying, “The problem is not Phoenix, Honey, it’s you.”

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"Used with permission of Christian Standard, where this column first appeared."