Like a chicken with its head cut off

We had fresh chicken on the farm! I introduced my young bride to my Iowa grandma back in 1975 and she had a cultural experience! Early afternoon Grandma Scott selected a fat rooster from the yard. One quick stroke of the hatchet removed his head and then for a moment or two the body ran around, wings flapping, before dropping over dead.  After preparation, (I’ll spare you the details) the chicken was in fryer. My city gal observed it all with wide eyes. Previously she thought that somehow chicken came only in plastic wrapped trays in the supermarket. There’s a point here. A headless chicken may appear alive, but it only leftover nerve impulses causing the movement.

Are you connected to Christ, the Head of the Body, or are you living your Christian life like a chicken with its head cut off? Does He give you purpose and coordination, or do you just run around pointlessly, looking alive but actually still spiritually dead?

The letter to the Colossian church is about living ‘in Christ.’  We find this declaration: "He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together. Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything." (Colossians 1:17-18, NLT) That is not just dogma! That is truth by which we can order life. Before things spin out of control, even when we are trying to make sense of what is going on around us, we are wise if we choose to go to the One who Head over all. "So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority." (Colossians 2:10, NLT)

We are prone to subtle conceit that causes us to rebel, though often quietly and unconsciously, against His Headship. Most of the time, our rebellion is not framed in terms of outright rejection of Christ’s authority. Instead, we substitute our own wisdom for His or we just fail to ask for His leadership, assuming we have it all under our control. I told one of my kids to leave his iPod Touch home from school. I know how distracting it can be with all the game apps just begging him to play when he should be studying. He didn’t say “No, I will take it anyway. I don’t care what you think.”  He nodded in agreement. Then I discovered that he was taking it anyway! It was a quiet kind of rebellion, a rejection of my authority. His choice ultimately is much more costly to him than to me. My direction was for his benefit, not mine. The Word warns us of a similar choice and the deadly consequence. "Their sinful minds have made them proud, and they are not connected to Christ, the head of the body. For he holds the whole body together with its joints and ligaments, and it grows as God nourishes it." (Colossians 2:18-19, NLT)

Today, renew your commitment to the Headship of Jesus Christ. Look for decisions you are making apart from submission to Him. Look for ways that you may be running around like a headless chicken! Kneel, humbly, and confess – “Jesus Christ, be Lord. Let me know the impulse of your divine direction so that I will live a purposeful, holy life.”

I close by switching the metaphor of connection. It’s not so gruesome as the headless chicken one! It is still about staying connected. Let this word from the Word take hold of you today. Jesus says,  “I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. … Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.

“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned." (John 15:1-6, NLT)

Amen