“A little boy wanted to see an eagle fly. He put some sandwiches in his backpack, got his binoculars, and set out on the plains, saying, “I’m going out there to see the eagles fly.”
The sky was vast and seemed to stretch out forever like an endless blue blanket, but no birds were anywhere in flight. Then, in the distance, he spotted wings. Noooo. What he saw was a hawk. After a long wait, another bird came into view, and he grabbed his binoculars, only to discover – a big disappointment-it was a pigeon. He was about to head home, dejected, when far, far above his head he spied it. Yes! Aaaaaaahh- that’s an eagle!
As the magnificent creature soared into the boy’s view, he was awestruck. The boy had learned about eagles in school, but nothing had prepared him for this sighting of a real eagle.
When the eagle spreads his wings, from tip to tip he is eight to ten feet long. The eagle can see two to three miles away. His vision is that keen. The eagle soars at heights where other birds are not able to breathe. The eagle operates at the highest level.
The eagle even makes love in the air; that ensures it only mates with its own species. It never risks partnering with chickens, for example, because, of course, the chicken cannot fly that high. It’s not that the chicken doesn’t want to- its body is too big and its wings are too short. And flap all it wants, the chicken goes five feet in the air and then back to the ground.
When the eagle spreads its wings, it uses the wind to increase its velocity. So, the greater the storm, the higher the eagle flies, for the storm pushes the eagle higher and higher into the air.
“My God, look at the eagle fly!” exclaimed the little boy. He watched the eagle, first with his own eyes, then through the lenses of his binoculars, the eagle an elegant moving speck. Mesmerized, he watched the winged wonder ascend, circle, glide, and maneuver.
Suddenly, the eagle swooped down to the ground like a torpedo. He snatched something and took it back up into the air. The boy couldn’t see what it was. And then, oh God, it was a National Geographic moment, the eagle went higher and higher and higher and then stopped. The eagle appeared suspended in midair, as if it had been shot.
Now the eagle was falling, as the little boy looked on, confused. This time, the lion of flying creatures was not diving down with aim or focus, it was plummeting, flapping and falling, flapping and falling.
Finally it disappeared from sight. The boy thought, Did somebody shoot the eagle? I didn’t hear a gun. I must find out. I can’t go home until I know what happened to the eagle.
He had to walk a couple of miles to find the eagle, and when he did, there lay nine feet of wings stretched out, helpless. The eagle was lying down, nose in the dirt. It was dead.
The boy kneeled next to the eagle, and sobbed.
What killed the eagle?
Cautiously, he turned the eagle over. There, affixed to the great bird’s chest was a weasel- one of the lowliest of common ground critters. This ordinary weasel had bitten through the regal chest, into the heart of the eagle.
Now I see what happened to the eagle, the boy thought. He picked up something that he wouldn’t let go of. Then, he cried to the dead eagle, “Eagle, you were stronger than the weasel! The weasel could never hurt you if you didn’t pick it up and hold on to that old weasel.”
In the course of your flight of repositioning yourself, if you don’t drop some things, you’ll come crashing down like the eagle. Have you picked up some bad habits, some less than ideal companions, something that’s eating at you? Have you picked up something that is stopping you from living your life to the fullest, blocking you from scaling to heights unknown, and preventing you from doing what you were created to do? If you don’t drop it, it will bring you down.
What’s eating at your heart?
The thing that is holding you cannot hold you if you do not hold it. You’re stronger than it is. You’ve been worried or insecure or stressed out or broken or hurting for a long time. You’ve hidden the weasel and covered for the weasel and never let anybody see the weasel. You’ve nurtured the weasel and kept the weasel alive because sometimes the weasel was the only company you had. But to make this next move in life, to go to the next level, to reach the next dimension, you can’t go any higher with the weasel.
You’re an eagle. You were built to fly. You were built to love and be loved, to touch and be touched, to think, to create, to participate. Whom did you pick, or what did you pick up, that has got you living among chickens when you were called to soar like an eagle? Somewhere in your life is a weasel that is eating at you- a weakness, fear, insecurity, vulnerability. Drop the weasel, drop the weasel. Hurry up and drop the weasel before it eats the heart out of your thinking.
Do you want to see the top of the mountains? Do you want to spread your wings and fly through the clouds? Do you want to feel the cool breeze blowing across your face? Do you want to soar so high that the world will know you were here? What do you want? What do you want to do with the life you have left? Are you going to stay in the chicken coop, or are you going to spread your wings and fly?
Spread your wings and let the storms of life lift you up. Reposition yourself.
This is your moment, this is your time, this is your day, and this is your hour. Go for it. Position, reposition, switch, shift, change, do what you need to do to get those wings open. Live your life; drop your weasel and go for it. You were meant to fly. Get out of the cage, spread your wings.
What would you do if money were no object? What would you do if fear couldn’t stop you? Where would you go if you could fly? What are you going to do with the rest of your life?
God gives you the gift of life and what you do with it is your gift to God.”
An excerpt from the book, “Reposition Yourself Reflections, Living A Life Without Limits” by T.D.Jakes.
Be strong and courageous for the Lord your God is with you!