"As an eagle stirs up its nest,
Hovers over its young,
Spreading out its wings, taking them up,
Carrying them on its wings,
So the LORD alone led him,
And there was no foreign god with him."
- Deuteronomy 32:11-12
It is in times where we are uncomfortable that God trains us for the tasks ahead. An illustration of this is the way a mother eagle trains its young to fly. The eagle's nest is built on a very high place, up on the rocks and mountains. The mother eagle hovers over the nest and allows the eaglet to watch it in action. As the eaglet is fed and nurtured, it slowly grows bigger day by day. Now the nest is made up of prickly thorns pointing inward. As the eaglet grows bigger, it starts to bump into the thorns and gets poked by them. It gives the eaglet that feeling of wanting to get out of the nest.
After that, the mother eagle will take the eaglet and throw it off the nest, plunging down in terminal velocity only to catch it right before it hits the ground and places it back on the nest. The eaglet, scared from being so close to death, sits on the nest only to be thrown again. The mother eagle catches it again. The mother eagle does this over and over.
Until one day, the eaglet gets so sick and tired and angry at this cycle that in rage, it starts flapping its wings as it experiences free fall. And guess what, it discovers one thing -- it can fly!
Recently I've been in uncomfortable situations. This has been going on now for about a year, but I'd like to focus on the recent days.
I've been asked to substitute for my pastor who went out of town for a pastors' conference, to teach the midweek Bible study. This was something I had never done before, and it was a stretch. As I was preparing for that, my mom was also out of town and I had to watch over my grandma from time to time, and make sure the dogs are fed. I taught on Acts 27 - "Sailing Through A Storm".
After this, I was able to relax by attending a beach retreat with my churchmates the day before and on, a holiday. Little did I realize that all the travel, swimming, and just basically the whole trip wore me out.
I also changed my ATM PIN which was required of us in the company, on the same holiday as well. I went back to my work the following day only to find out that the ATMs have been reset and I had to change the PIN again the next day.
I also had to say goodbye to an old friend (although it's never really goodbye among us Christians, we will be together for eternity), and that was sad. She's going to law school, but not here. I'm gonna miss her a lot.
As the week was coming to a close, I could finally rest, or so I thought. My church was getting ready to move out of our old facility into a new place.
This Sunday afternoon, we from the church helped out with moving our stuff (lots of it). I usually take naps on Sunday afternoons, but this was not one of those times. Don't get me wrong, I was glad to help.
I had to go to work the following day and as I'm writing this, I will be at work in a few hours. My chance to write this is now, since I only had 5.5 hours of sleep and I can't sleep right now. It's 4:17 A.M. now.
So, as I'm experiencing free fall, time to spread my wings...
(Next time we can talk about the butterfly.)
No comments:
Post a Comment