Be The Eagle God Has Called You to Be

‘The Parable of the Eagle’, written by James Aggrey is one I find very interesting.

Once upon a time, while walking through the forest, a certain man found a young eagle. He took it home and put it in his barnyard where it soon learned to eat chicken feed and to behave as chickens behave. One day, a naturalist who was passing by inquired of the owner why it was that an eagle, the king of all birds, should be confined to live in the barnyard with the chickens. “Since I have given it chicken feed and trained it to be a chicken, it has never learned to fly,” replied the owner. “It behaves as chickens behave, so it is no longer an eagle.” “Still,” insisted the naturalist, “it has the heart of an eagle and can surely be taught to fly.”

After talking it over, the two men agreed to find out whether this was possible. Gently the naturalist took the eagle in his arms and said, “You belong to the sky and not to the earth. Stretch forth your wings and fly.” The eagle, however, was confused; he did not know who he was, and seeing the chickens eating their food, he jumped down to be with them again. Undismayed, the naturalist took the eagle on the following day, up on the roof of the house, and urged him again, “You are an eagle. Stretch forth your wings and fly.” But the eagle was afraid of his unknown self and world and jumped down once more for the chicken food.

On the third day the naturalist rose early and took the eagle out of the barnyard to a high mountain. There, he held the king of birds high above him and encouraged him again, saying, “You are an eagle. You belong to the sky as well as the earth. Stretch forth your wings now, and fly.” The eagle looked around, back towards the barnyard and up to the sky. Still, he did not fly. Then the naturalist lifted him straight towards the sun. The eagle began to tremble and slowly stretched his wings. At last, with a triumphant cry, he soared away into the heavens. It may be that the eagle still remembers the chickens with nostalgia; it may even be that he occasionally revisits the barnyard. But as far as anyone knows, he has never returned to lead the life of a chicken. He was an eagle though he had been kept and tamed as a chicken.

Just like the eagle, some people, who have learned to think of themselves as something they aren’t, can, with God’s help, change and become the person God has called them to be. Change is painful, change is hard, but it’s incredibly worthwhile. Are you stuck in the past, believing the lies that others have told you about yourself and have taken on these ungodly beliefs that you aren’t good enough, smart enough, handsome enough, or young enough? The result is that you can be like the eagle among the chickens, not fulfilling your God-given calling.  Today, with God’s help stop telling yourself you can’t and declare that with God’s help you can!