Born to Fly?

By Michael Griego on October 6, 2023 • ( 0 )

Yes, that and then some. Beyond what we can imagine. How do we live like that? How do we ever really believe that? Here’s the way. ◊

This week during soccer practice, I told the following story to the girls team I coach:

One day a prairie chicken found an egg and sat on it until it hatched. Unbeknownst to the prairie chicken, the egg was an eagle egg, abandoned for some reason. That’s how an eagle came to be born into a family of prairie chickens.

While the eagle is the greatest of all birds, soaring above the heights with grace and ease, the prairie chicken doesn’t even know how to fly. In fact, prairie chickens are so lowly that they eat garbage.

Predictably, the little eagle, being raised in a family of prairie chickens, thought he was a prairie chicken. He walked around, ate garbage, and clucked like a prairie chicken.

One day he looked up to see a majestic bald eagle soar through the air, dipping and turning. When he asked his family what it was, they responded, “It’s an eagle. But you could never be like that because you are just a prairie chicken.” Then they returned to pecking the garbage.

The eagle spent his whole life looking up at eagles, longing to join them among the clouds. It never occurred to him to lift his wings and try to fly. The eagle died thinking he was just a prairie chicken.¹

The application I made for my girls soccer team (ages 10-11, including 2 of my granddaughters), is the following:

Sometimes kids who play soccer think they are slow runners, poor kickers, non-scorers, weak defenders, non-goalies, etc. They think negative thoughts about their own skills and abilities. Like the story, they think they are just prairie chickens. But actually, we are all made with special abilities and capabilities that can be developed and practiced so that we can become faster runners, better kickers, scorers, and defenders, even goalies. It’s all in how we choose to think and act. Let’s not be like eagles who think they are prairie chickens. Let’s live up to what we can be, spread our wings and fly!

Then the team went out for the second half of practice and scrimmaged an undefeated team and beat them 7-1.

“A Little Lower Than the Angels”
Of course, there’s a Biblical application of this story lesson for all of us as well. We’re told in Psalms and Hebrews that we have been given glory and honor, even dominion over all that God has made, just slightly below angels in status:

“What is mankind that you are mindful of them, a son of man that you care for him? You [God] made them a little lower than the angels; you crowned them with glory and honor and put everything under their feet…” (Psalm 8:4-6 and Hebrews 2:6-8)

In an unfettered sense, we were born to fly, to spread our figurative wings and be more than we often think we can be.

God wants us to be all that we were created to be.

And yet many of us think and act like prairie chickens because the world around us keeps telling us that’s what we are. But yes, we can, and many do, rise above the mundane and perform well in the world.

But that is not necessarily what God had in mind for us.

So What’s the Purpose?
There is nothing wrong with being excellent in what we do, to perform well, exercise God-given gifts and live up to expectations. But God calls us to Himself for more than human applause and approbation.

Consider the following verses in consideration of God’s purpose for us:

As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:14)
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)
For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. (1 Timothy 4:10)
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. (James 4:8)
It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. (John 6:45)
No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. (Luke 13:3)
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. (Romans 8:37)

In summary, we are to repent and walk with God, not conform to evil around us but to walk in holiness; to confess our sins and be cleansed; to live and believe in the hope set on the God who lives and saves; who draws us near and purifies our hearts; to be taught by God and live as more than winners through Christ, now and forever.

And that’s it?

Yes. A life committed to that will yield fruit and blessings and joy beyond expectations, unmeasured by human terms. Certainly not without pains, strains, and difficulties, but rich in peace, perspective, wisdom, and purpose.

Are you living a life that soars?
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Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. – Isaiah 40:28-31