The Graceline

Once upon a time, a farmer found an eagle’s egg and put it in a hen’s nest for it to hatch. The eaglet grew up believing he was a chicken. He would scratch the ground for worms, cluck and cackle, flutter a few feet and fall back to the earth.

Years passed and the eagle grew old. Looking up in the sky one day, he spotted a majestic eagle floating effortlessly among the clouds. “Who is that?” the eagle asked his barnyard mates.

“Why that’s an eagle, the king of birds,” a hen responded. “He belongs to the sky. We belong to the earth. We are chickens.”

And the eagle believed it. He lived and died as a chicken, because that is what he thought he was.

“As a man thinks in his heart, so is he…” (Proverbs 23:7). We are what we think we are. That’s why the Bible speaks so much about the importance of what we think.

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5).

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2).

“Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious — the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse” (Philippian 4:8 MSG).

Satan tried to deceive Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He is not stupid. He knows that “stinking thinking,” believing a lie, will wreck and ruin our lives. The eagle believed he was a chicken never realizing who he really was. He completely missed his destiny.

Think about this. God originally created us to be happy, to live carelessly in the care of God completely depending upon Him to provide everything we would need to enjoy life to the max. After Adam and Eve’s poor decision to trust themselves rather than God, we were all inherently influenced to swallow the lie that God is not good. The lie that says we need to look out for number one because God doesn’t care about us.

God created us to depend upon Him for all our needs. If we don’t trust Him, we have to find alternative sources in which to have our needs met. We have been programmed by our families, society, culture, religion and education that we cannot find happiness and fulfillment in God alone. We’ve been told that we need certain other things to make us happy, such things as money, fame, houses, cars, physical appearance, and relationships apart from God. That is a lie.

God gives us freedom to be who He created us to be. For me to be me requires no effort. To be what someone else wants me to be is exhausting. God created us to mount up with wings as eagles, not grovel in the dirt scratching out a meager existence. We please God when we stretch our two wings called TRUST and OBEY. When we do, He becomes the wind beneath our wings, and we soar over all the little annoyances that would rob us of the joy of living life wide open.

Eagles fly. Chickens flutter. Are you gonna fly, or are you gonna mutter? You’re the only one choosing for you. Don’t miss out on your destiny, Beloved. Choose wisely.