Eyes on the Prize

Nashville Warbler...trust me

When the rich man found out what the dishonest overseer had done, he shook his head but admired the man’s craftiness. Do you see what this means?” Creator Sets Free (Jesus) asked. “The children of darkness are sometimes wiser in the ways of this world than the children of light are in the ways of the spirit-world above. ~ Luke 16:8

There is no wrong way to identify a bird aside from outright fabrication. You can use any tool at your disposal. You use what you’ve got. Can’t ID by ear? Don’t know fall plumages? No problem. If all you can do is say “what’s that?” or snap a blurry photo, you’ve got something to work with. All identifications are approximations that include varying degrees of doubt. Birders have a saying, “if it were a mushroom, would you eat it?” I’ll admit that I’ve made some calls that if they were mushrooms may have involved a trip to the hospital. By and large, birders are not trying to deceive others, even when their identifications are overly aspirational, they are only deceiving themselves.

That’s not to say that there isn’t a craftiness that comes with experience. I will certainly make quick calls based on high probability, challenging others to prove me wrong. Once I was leading a trip to a favorite marsh and called a Least Bittern based on a couple seconds of flight over the reeds, only confirmed by its calling, but only after I went far out on that limb. It looked like magic, but it was really just the result of a decision to demonstrate confidence based on experience. I expected the bird in that location at that time, so the odds were good. Would I have stuck by my ID without more evidence? I guess that matters on context. This was a rare bird that was a lifer for some in the group. If I had been pressed if I had seen it well enough for someone else to count it, the answer would have to have been “no.” But for a moment of delight in the search, it was absolutely a bittern...unless it turned out to be a Green Heron, or blown leaf.

While it would be a bad interpretation of the parable of the dishonest steward to conclude that Jesus was arguing that the ends justify the means, it is clear that he was suggesting that we should not make the perfect the enemy of the possible. On the one hand, he is taking a jab at the religious leaders who were abandoning worship of the Provider, making an idol of the wealth that God provided. On the other hand, he was telling us to pay attention to ways that even those in darkness are able to use their cleverness to get what they want. How much more good can we do in the light if we keep our eyes on the prize, making progress, improving as we go?

Prayer: Holy Light, shine on our path showing us the here and now where we can use who we are and what we have in clever and crafty ways to serve you by serving those on the margins. Amen.