The bird used the stairs.
I used them too. The difference
between the bird and myself was that I didn’t have wings. It would have seemed much easier for the bird
to flap it wings and quickly escalate the stairs, avoiding the unnecessary hop
up each step (I’ve done this as a kid, it’s quite a bit of work.) I don’t know why it used the stairs, it
didn’t need to. Maybe for the bird
hopping up the steps was akin to us flying in a plane. Maybe the bird had a great fear of stairs and
wanted to get over this fear. Maybe it
was taking a break from flapping its wings, or maybe it was injured. Whatever the reason, it simply struck me as
ironic. He had wings. He would have made pet birds angry.
I remember the kid who sat in the back of the room and
refused to use his talents because things didn’t go his way. I remember the girl who sat on the side not
even aware of her own beauty because she believed the lies others have told her
over and over and over again. They
simply hop up the stairs either unaware or just simply refusing to use the
wings that are right there for them to use.
It seems we live in a world of clipped wings. The reasons are endless but the results end
up being the same: we hop up the
stairs.
For many, they know they have wings, they simply refuse to
use them. It’s too much work. They don’t like how they look or they don’t
want to use them they way others are asking them to, or how they were designed
to. I heard one bird got his wings
clipped because it was the latest trend.
Kinds of regrets that now. Perhaps they don’t think they will work right,
or they are embarrassed to use them.
Maybe that was the bird’s problem.
There were a bunch of people around, and it was too busy worrying about
what all the people would think of how he flapped his wings. One awkward flap and it becomes a bad day.
Others are not even aware of their wings. I’ve
often wondered how many Mozarts we’ve never heard or how many Rembrandts we’ve
never seen because they potential artists never knew they had it in them. How many worship leaders have never led, how
many missionaries never leave their homes, or how many preachers never preach a
sermon? How many doctors never heal, or
teachers never see the light bulb go on in a child’s eye? They never knew they had the wings to do
it. No one ever bothered to tell them.
Both are equally frustrating. How many times have we seen a student’s
enormous potential, and they remain blind looking in the mirror. Or how many times has a student seen it, and
the take the path of least resistant or in some cases worst resistance, only to
clip themselves through poor decisions, never knowing their full
potential.
As leaders, we must help students discover their wings, and
to use them as God intended. Can you
imagine the impact they would make if students truly lived up to their
potential? I think the world would be
just as impacted now, as it was 2000 years ago when Jesus took 12 cast offs and
made them world changers. He simply
showed them their wings, and what an impact they made.
The reality is the world is greatly impacted by the
missionaries, pastors, teachers, doctors, and laypeople every day many times
over who have simply used their wings and trust the Holy Spirit to do the
rest. If we can convey to our students
to simply trust God, being willing to grow, and know that our failures are not
fatal, there will be no holding them back.
They just need to stretch their wings.
A while back, I sat in a coffee shop and in hopped a
bird. He was pecking the crumbs off the
floor. I sat at the table eating a
scone, which was right above him. He had
also hopped in. A hot warm scone sat
right above him, and he was settling for crumbs on a floor. He and the hopping bird seem to have the same
problem. They didn’t know what they had
right in front of them.
I wonder if it was the same bird.
