Voices: Don’t be a chicken

We have chickens—hens, to be more accurate. They lay brown eggs with the dark, yellow yolks. Oh, we love them.

Our six hens give us five to six eggs per day. We cannot eat eggs fast enough. We eat all we can and give the rest away to church members.

All this sounds good, but Houston, we have a problem.

One or more of our hens have discovered they like eggs as much as or more than we do. I eat about one a day on average in a given week. Suddenly, in the last few weeks, one or more of our chickens have been eating nearly all they lay, leaving none for us.

Now, this isn’t right. We feed them well. We give them high-protein feed. We give them cabbage, lettuce, apples, and corn each day to eat. We feed them worms in the evening. We lay out oyster shells for them for their additional digestive needs.

We give and give and give. The birds take and take and take and then eat their own eggs, which were to be their payment to us for their care.

Corralling chickens

I googled how to stop them from eating their own eggs. I put mustard in the ones they started to eat. I read that would deter them. It didn’t.

I put out false eggs and golf balls to frustrate them when they try to peck at something harder than their beaks. That hasn’t worked.

I try to gather eggs often in the day to catch them, but Wednesday, one of them laid their egg, and turned to eat it as soon as it was laid in the nest, before I could get out there to stop whichever one it was.

Some say the answer is to get a roll-away bin where the hens lay eggs in their little laying area, and the eggs roll down a soft chute out of reach. I am looking into that, but I am thinking there will need to be some carpentry work involved. That is not in my skill set.

Maybe we could put a baby monitor in the coop to identify the culprit, but then I read the hens will “egg” each other on to do the same. And they are. Yesterday morning, one laid an egg, and four took turns eating it.

I am at my wit’s end! Can someone help me?

How we’re like chickens

The above is a true problem I am having even as I type this. Do you think God feels this way about us?

He feeds us. He waters us. He gives us all we need. He treats us when we’re sick. He keeps us warm when we are cold. I put heat lamps out for my hens when the temperature drops below freezing.

What does God ask for in return? Our love. Our worship. Our first fruits, our tithes. Our obedience.

How do we repay him? We worship other things—habits, sports, celebrities, money, ourselves. We love ourselves, our addictions, our pleasures, our free time above loving him. We spend on ourselves what should be reserved for him.

We complain because we want him to supply more than our needs. We want him to meet our wants, dreams, wishes, and even evil desires.

God does everything to draw us to himself, but we so often refuse. So, what is he to do with us?

‘Don’t be culled out’

With the chickens, I am told the last resort is to cull out the bad ones, because they will affect all the others.

What will God ultimately do? He will cull out those who are not his, who are rebellious, who play upon his goodness. Judgement awaits those who abuse his kindness, who reject his love.

Jesus said in the days of Noah, people were eating and drinking, marrying, planting, and building. God told Noah to get in the ark to save him from the destruction. Then the flood came, and the people were culled, destroyed.

In the same way, two men will be working in the field. One will be taken to safety in heaven, the other left to face the wrath of God. Two women will be working in an office. One will be lifted before hell falls, the other left to face hell.

Don’t be culled out. Love God, for he loves you. He sent his only Son, Jesus, to die for our sins to prove his love. Worship him. Adore him. Obey him, for that is where we are blessed. Give to him and reap much greater blessings.

Johnny Teague is the senior pastor of Church at the Cross in West Houston and the author of several books, including his newest Thomas Paine Returns with Common Sense. His website is johnnyteague.com. The views expressed in this opinion article are those of the author.