Mundane. Among the worse choices of how we live. To follow all the expectations of others, when our nature doesn’t match that. To live such a safe life that we rarely risk, we rarely let our adrenal glands work. Maybe we can learn from the eagles.
His soul yearns to soar
but gravity binds
denying his destiny of flight
until he spreads his wings
and breaks away
for gravity cannot conquer
the wildness at his core
That wild streak lives in me
fighting a gravity of conventions
and other’s expectations
of comfort and of ease
and those I want to please
But I have flown
and know its joy
and will not again be bound
For much of my early life, I lived conventionally, to please. I did what others said I should (OK, most of it). Parents. Church. Society. And, I thought, God. So I became a good kid, boring and bored. Life didn’t seem worth it, and I mostly rejected suicide because I recognized its permanency.
After drifting for several years, I came back to God, expecting him to make some changes in me. One I could never have anticipated. Flooded with his acceptance and love, I no longer cared about first of all pleasing others, of being conventional to win that. I bought a motorcycle before it became the badge of midlife success, and have now ridden about 250,000 miles, covering 3 countries and 47 states. Several trips I took off with no determined end, just to explore. For a year I lived in a log cabin at 8500 ft., with the nearest neighbors three miles off. Even in the “conventional” ministry years, I planted a church and took some that others encouraged me to avoid. In my 70’s now, a group of us “Gray Hogs” take a long bike trip each summer.
And more than merely learning about myself, I’ve learned some about God. I think he likes us to break free. Not of morality, certainly not from him, but the expectations of others, the risks, the fears that keep us grounded in lieu of flying. Read the prophets, these dudes did not follow the conventions of culture! I totally blew it in thinking God wanted me conventional.
Some are suited for that, I know. We need them. But that wasn’t the person God designed me to be. I need wildness, wilderness, flexibility. Fortunately, my wife understands that, mostly.
The eagle does have limits. All life does. We do as well. But may our limits be those established by God, not primarily those done by friends, family, society.
Kick Starting the Discussion
On the spectrum of very conventional to quite unconventional, where does your spirit land? Does your life match that? What boundaries do you sense God encouraging you to break through? What will it cost to do that? To not do it? What has helped you to soar?
