A Chicken or an Eagle?
An old Native American story tells of a brave finding an eagle egg. Not being able to return the egg to an eagle’s nest high up on a rocky cliff, he decided to put it in the nest of a prairie chicken. The hen sat on this eagle’s egg along with her own. Soon the little eaglet was hatched alongside the prairie chickens.
All his life, this eagle, thinking he was a prairie chicken, did what the other chickens did. Clucking and cackling he scratched in the dirt for seeds and insects to eat. He flew in a brief thrashing of wings no more than a few feet off the ground. After all, that’s how prairie chickens are supposed to fly.
Years passed. The eagle grew old. One day he saw a magnificent bird far above him in the cloudless sky. Hanging with graceful majesty on the powerful wind currents, it soared with scarcely a beat of its strong golden wings. “What a beautiful bird!” said the eagle to one of the chickens. “What is it?” “That’s an eagle, the chief of birds,” the chicken clucked. “But don’t even think about it, you could never be like him.” So the eagle never did, and died thinking he was a prairie chicken.
The story points us to a tragic truth. Though meant to lead powerful and meaningful lives enabled by the Holy Spirit, we often settle for a weak and meaningless existence. We reason that since everyone else is doing it; it must be the way to go. Surely we wouldn’t want to be different from other’s we know. But God has called us to holy living.
Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:13-16 ESV)
