To soar like an eagle, you’re going to have to fall out of the nest a few times. To burn hotter, you need to feed the fire. Getting stronger and becoming more successful isn’t easy.

Learning to fly like an eagle means you have to leave the comfort of the nest and spread your wings. You might hit some branches on the first few flights, but it is impossible to learn and grow without sacrifice. With experience comes the ability to soar to greater and greater heights.

Look around you, really look. What kind of people surround you in life? To grow into an eagle, you need to surround yourself with eagles. To be a white-hot Christian, you need to surround yourself with other Christians dedicated to living more Godly lives. At work, on your day off, on Friday night – who are you surrounded by? Anyone you would consider an eagle? Eagles build their eyries high in the mountains and in the tops of trees, secure from assault. A prairie chicken will never reach those lofty places. You don’t have to worry about those bumps and bruises from learning to fly when you build your nest at ground level. But then again, a full-grown eagle has no natural predators. Pecking around in the dust for insects and seeds, prairie chickens are just nature’s fast food.

If becoming a white-hot Christian was easy, we could just wake up one morning and decide to become white-hot for God and that would be that. It would be nice, wouldn’t it, to just wake up and decide to be rich, wise, inspiring, or loved. Like these, waking up a white-hot Christian is only a dream without action. We need to really wake up and realize we are responsible for our own actions!

How many times have we disliked someone just for the car they drive, the amount of free time or money they have, or the amount of happiness that surrounds them? Granted, having success in the ways of the world is meaningless if your soul isn’t in the right place – but this “prairie chicken” mentality is so easy to slip into, how can we hope to truly stretch our wings and fly like eagles if we can’t break the habit of negativity? You can’t put a price on love and happiness, but they aren’t free either. Even if it doesn’t show on the surface, time and work are needed to become successful in business, in marriage, and in life. Somewhere along the line, maybe behind the scenes, a lot of hard work was applied to help these individuals multiply the joys in their lives. How can we become white-hot Christians when we can’t love our neighbors, the very people we are trying to bring to God, for poorer and for richer?

We all have to venture out into the world, chickens and eagles alike, to get what we need. But without the protective “nest” to return to, the inexperienced and immature have no safe place to grow, and the full-grown eagles have no place to rest. Cypress Meadows can be that place. If you are committed to spreading your wings, come what may, and you allow the Lord God to be your guide, Cypress will help you grow. You will never soar like an eagle, or even learn to fly, when raised by prairie chickens.

It’s up to you.

“Who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” Psalm 103: 4-5 (NIV)

“Like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its pinions. The LORD alone led him.” Deuteronomy 32: 11-12 (NIV)

“He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” Isaiah 40: 29-31 (NIV)

~ Marq Caughell

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 5th, 2007 at 2:00 am and is filed under Week 3: Ring of Fire. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.