THE CHALLENGE OF KNOWING
During the Old Testament era, God
unveiled a simple yet powerful truth through the Prophet Hosea: “My people are
destroyed for lack of knowledge.” (Hosea 4:6) Self awareness is mission
critical, but it can be extremely elusive, especially in the presence of
background noises or distracting voices. Resultantly, many live and die without
ever realizing their identity or actualizing their purpose.
It reminds me of the story of a
farmer who found a displaced eagle’s egg. Failing to recognize its true
identity, he gingerly placed the egg in the nest of
a barnyard hen. Soon afterwards, the eaglet hatched. Naturally, he assumed that
the hen was his natural mother and the brood of chicks were siblings.
So all of his life, the eagle did
whatever chickens customarily do, assuming his destiny was intrinsically tied
to residents of that barnyard. He scratched the earth for worms and insects. He
clucked and cackled. And occasionally, he would thrash his wings and fly just a
few feet in the air. He was dramatically shaped and limited by his 'home
environment' and by his response to it.
Years passed by and the eagle grew
old. In his declining years, he spied a beautiful bird flying high above in the
cloudless sky. This magnificent creature glided in graceful majesty through
powerful currents of wind. And it soared to lofty elevations with scarcely a
beat of its gorgeous golden wings.
The old eagle gazed upwards in total
awe and wonder. “Who is that?” he whispered.
“That’s the eagle, king of all
birds,” offered an observant barnyard neighbor. “HE belongs to the sky. WE
belong to the earth – we are chickens.” So the poor displaced eagle lived and
died as a chicken, for that’s exactly who he thought he was and all he might
ever be.
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