Chicken Masquerade

Life, to be life, has to be lived. It has to be alive in you every moment.

Today I am going to offer you two approaches to keep the awareness of life alive in you. One I see as a good way, the other; a better way… and these are according to my point of view and experience.

First, I begin with a story.

One day, a naturalist was passing by a farm and saw in the barnyard a flock of chickens. Among them was an eagle. The naturalist inquired of the owner why it was that an eagle, the king of all birds, could be reduced to living in the barnyard with chickens.

"Well," the farmer said, "Since I've given it chicken feed and it thinks it's a chicken, it has never learned to fly. It behaves as a chicken behaves, so it no longer thinks of itself as an eagle."

"Still," insisted the naturalist, "It has the heart of an eagle. It surely should be taught to fly." After talking it over, the two men agreed to find out whether this was possible.

Gently, the naturalist took the eagle in his arms, looked into its eyes and said, "You belong in the sky
and not to the earth. Stretch forth your wings and fly!" The eagle, however, was confused. He did not know who he was. Seeing the chickens down there eating their food, he jumped down with them again.

Undismayed, the naturalist took the eagle on the following day up on the roof of the house and urged him again saying, "You are an eagle. Stretch forth your wings and fly!"

But the eagle was afraid of his unknown self and the unknown world and jumped down once more for chicken food.

On the third day, the naturalist rose early and took the eagle out of the barnyard to a very high mountain. There he held the king of birds up high above him and encouraged him again to fly saying, "You are an eagle. You belong to the sky as well as the earth. Stretch forth your wings and fly!" The eagle looked back towards the barnyard and up to the sky, and still he did not fly.

Then, the naturalist lifted him straight toward the sun, and it happened. The eagle began to tremble. Slowly he stretched forth his wings. At last, with a triumphant cry, he soared into the heavens.

It may be that the eagle still remembers the chickens with nostalgia. It may even be that he occasionally revisits the barnyard. But as far as anyone knows, he has never returned to lead the life of a chicken.

He was an eagle although he had been kept and tamed as a chicken.

Just like the eagle who thought himself a chicken, some people have learned to think of themselves as something less than they really are, less than God created them to be. Is this you?

You can have faith in the power and presence of God.

You can decide in favor of who you really are once again… with God's help.

Faith and Life are not spectator sports, they require participation.

There is a poem called "The Calf Path," by Sam Walter Foss, written in 1895.  In the poem he writes of a calf that meanders through a primeval wood. It leaves behind a crooked path that is then followed by a lone dog, then several flock of sheep. Now, the once unmarked ancient wood, has a clearly defined path running through it. Soon people walk the path followed by horses and carts, then it becomes a city street, is paved, becomes a crowed thoroughfare… the central street of a renowned metropolis…and people curse its wandering ways.

Now from the poem: “But they still followed ... do not laugh... hence two centuries and a half…The first migrations of that calf.”

“A moral lesson I might teach
Were I ordained and called to preach,
For people are prone to go it blind
Along the calf paths of the mind.
And work away from sun to sun
And do what others have always done.
They follow in the beaten track
And out and in, forth and back.
And still their devious course pursued
To keep the path that others do.
But how the old, wise wood-gods laugh
Who saw that first primeval calf.”

Both the story and the poem point to the fact that we often (perhaps mostly?) do what we’ve been taught to do and we do it without thinking about it.

We live our lives the way others do because that’s the way we do it.

Yes, we think of ourselves, probably overwhelmingly, as our name and personality; all the while holding open the space that there is “another me,” too, and we generally think of and speak of that “other me” as being “inside me.”

That seeming “other you” is the real you, it is your being. It is your true life, your true existence, your true actuality, animation, and presence.

As I’m sure you’re aware I start ever prayer with, “Loving Presence.” When I say that I am not speaking to a distant God out there somewhere, I am speaking directly to your being…to the real you…to the Loving presence that is you.

You are a son or daughter of the Most High. Please, do not be blinded by the path of others, the nay-saying of others, or the restrictive ideas of, “That’s the way we’ve always done it,” or, “I’m too old to change.”  In other words, you needn’t follow in the footsteps of the calf-Paths of your mind just because that’s the way you’ve always done it. You are not a robot. You are a dynamic co-creator with God.

I said I was going to tell you about a good way and a better way to maintain the awareness of life.

Here’s a good way. It, too, comes to us in a story, a true-life experience that happened to Jayne Sample.

Jayne told some of us this story earlier this week. When she was in college she was invited to take place in a Science Fair in Flint, Michigan. Her science professor, attending with her, offered to fly the two of them in his airplane. Once they were in the air her professor told Jayne that she would be the navigator. Jayne told him that she had no experience and had no idea what to do.

“Just watch for the roof-tops as we pass from town to town and city. Watch the map, too, and you’ll know where we are.”

The trip up went without a hitch. Coming home, however, they encountered a storm over Fort Wayne. There were heavy clouds, rain, thunder and lightning.

Jayne couldn’t navigate. She told her professor that she’d lost her bearings and she didn’t know what to do.

He pointed off into the distance and asked if she could see, “that tiny dot of light?”

Then he said something to her that any of us can use when we’re enveloped in an emotional storm. He said, “We are going to head directly into that point of light.”

That is good advice to remember when we find ourselves in times of trouble; head directly into the light. Head directly into the remembrance of, “you are not alone; you are a child of God; that there is no order of difficulty for you and God in any matter.”

Do you ever think of scripture when you find yourself in fear?

Psalm 118:6, “The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid.”

Deuteronomy 31:6, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified… for the Lord, your God, goes with you; He will never leave you or forsake you.”

1 Chronicles 28:20, “David also said to Solomon, his son, “Be strong and courageous… Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord, my God, is with you, He will not fail you or forsake you.”

Romans 8:15, “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the spirit of sonship.”

1 John 4:18, “There is no fear in love… perfect love drives out fear.”

We must go beyond the borders of our fears. Courage does not mean never being afraid. It means to go on doing what you know is right, even though you are afraid.

Go to the Light. That’s where your peace and safety lay.

This is a good approach.

I also said I would suggest a better approach, and it’s this: live from the constant awareness that the Light is present always.  Live a life-style of extending that Light, reflecting that Light, radiating that Light into your thoughts.

“Roll out” the Light instead of rolling your eyes.

Hold someone in the light instead of holding them in contempt. (This includes yourself)

Radiate Light instead of recoiling in fear.

When you find yourself in fear or uncertainty, you can head directly into a point of Light. That’d be a good thing to do. Or you can live in the Light and possibly be that point for another person, that’d be a better thing to do.

Either way, you are here to work with God to make a difference. You are an Eagle and your soul was created to fly!