mockingbird

If you call my phone

(extra points if you remember his name)

then you will hear my handy-dandy ring back tone.

(Although now Verizon has gone all self-promoting and says something silly like “Please enjoy this Verizon ring back tone.”  Makes me want to drop the tone so no one has to hear that commercial.)

And that ring back tone is Derek Webb’s song “Mockingbird”.

Recently, after hearing the song on my phone, my friend Beth said that whenever she hears the song, she thinks –

“But you don’t sound like a mockingbird.”

And maybe she was talking about my singing – that’s possible.

But I picked the song because I love the song.

Because it’s sort of my personal anthem.

One of them, anyway.

I am just mimicking what I have seen others do – borrowing ideas and sticking my stamp on them.  Isn’t that what we all do?

With what we wear?

And what we eat?

And what we think?

And how I teach?

And what I read?

A mockingbird.

And that’s not terrible.

Pretty hard to avoid imitation at a basic form.

(Hello Pinterest.  Isn’t that the point?)

In fact – I guess we shouldn’t avoid imitation.

It’s what we’re called to do – right?

Imitate.

Reflect someone else.

Be a mockingbird.

But not of our friends

or their ideas

or their whatevers.

But of Christ.

Little mockingbirds who sing His song and shine His light.