The Chicken and the Eagle

 


There is an old story that goes something like this…

Once a farmer was taking a walk along a path in the woods when he came across a large egg lying on the ground.  The egg was intact so he took the egg home and put it in the nest of one of his chickens.  The chicken sat on the egg until it hatched and when it did, the farmer was surprised to find the egg had housed an eagle.

Well the eagle stayed in the pen with the chickens and he learned to do what chickens do.  Each day he’d wander about the pen, scratching at the ground, looking for corn or insects to eat. 

As time passed the eagle grew older and one day, he saw a large bird soaring high above him gliding gracefully and majestically through the clouds. 

“What’s that?” the eagle said, “I want to be like HIM!” 

“Oh that?” replied the other chickens, “That’s an eagle, he is the king of all birds, master of the skies.  Don’t worry about him, you will never be like that.  We belong to the ground because we’re just chickens.”

And so, that eagle lived and died a chicken, because that’s all he thought he was.

---

I’ve heard it said, that the greatest tragedy in life is not that people aim too high and miss, it’s that people aim too low and hit.

God placed desires in your heart, and Stan will use “the world” to try to tell you that you are not good enough, smart enough, talented enough, or worth enough to pursue those desires.  Don’t believe the lies, for if you do, he won’t even have to try to defeat you for you will have defeated yourself.

The prophet Isaiah reminds us, God “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 like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” – Isaiah 40:29-31

Do not settle for the life of a chicken.  God made you to be an eagle!

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