LEARNING HOW TO OPEN YOUR WINGS AND FLY - Part 2

You learn to fly by flying

“As an eagle stirs up its nest, hovers over its young, spreading out its wings, taking them up, carrying them on its wings.” Deuteronomy 32:11

The greatest enemy of progress and development is comfort. The greatest mistake we ever make in our lives is to be comfortable with bare necessity. Someone many years ago coined this statement; “necessity is the mother of all inventions.” We are forced to change when we are faced with uncomfortable circumstances. This is how  all great inventions came about. 

Unless the nest we are sitting in is stirred, we sit there and tolerate. I like what the four leprous men said at the city gates of Samaria. The story is related in the book of 2 Kings 7:3, 4. “Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate; and they said to one another, “Why are we sitting here until we die? If we say, ‘We will enter the city,’ the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. Now therefore, come, let us surrender to the army of the Syrians. If they keep us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall only die.” The city of Samaria was besieged by the armies of Syria. The siege lasted for a long period; in fact it lasted until there was no more food left in the city. It was hard. Read the rest of the story in your devotional time. By virtue of the fact that they were leprous, they were not allowed to live in the city because leprosy is infectious. They lived outside the city. Now if there was famine in the city; think about what it was like for these four leprous men for they depended on the people in the city to bring them food. The Bible says famine was so hard in the city that people were already eating donkeys.

The four leprous patients said to one another; “why are we sitting here until we die? If we say, ‘we will enter the city,’ the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also.” You can imagine the situation; death in the city, death outside the city and sickness at the city entrance. My man, their nest was unruffled.Hunger provides no comfort – it challenges every bit of complacency in you. “Why sit we here until we die?” they said to themselves. “...now therefore, come, let us surrender to the army of the Syrians.” My Bible says; “And they rose at twilight to go to the camps of the Syrians”   (verse 5). When their nest was unruffled, they did not sit and moan, they arose. Did you see that? They arose in the middle of the night and went to the Syrian camp. God multiplied their footsteps into thousands and there was such a frightening rumble as the noise of their footsteps echoed against the surrounding mountains. The Syrian army thought the Samaritans formed alliance with other nations and they’ve come to attack.  They fled and left everything as it were in the tents. When the leprous men arrived, there was no one in the tents. Not only did they eat to their full; they saved the city from starvation. Imagine; three patients putting the entire Syrian army to flight.

King Solomon in Proverbs 6:6 say, a lazy person should enrol at the university of ants and learn. What do we learn from these four patients? Four sick people who refused to succumb to their condition conquered the entire army of the Syrians. Have you stopped to think what turned them into overnight heroes? What do you think it would have happened to them had they not suffered leprosy? Yes, you are right; they would have been in the city with everyone else and died of starvation. What turned them into deliverers of their people? Discomfort in the nest caused it. The unruffled nest was the reason.

Many people’s weakness is to complain and blame when their nests are stirred. Friend, there is no Canaan without the wilderness. There is no throne without the valley of the shadow of death. Ask David, he’ll tell you. There is no ‘sitting at the right hand of God the Father’ without Calvary. In fact, the road to glory passes through Calvary. James, the brother of our Lord says these in chapter one verse two of his epistle; “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”

Stop complaining when your nest is unruffled. Stop complaining and start learning. When your boss seems to be hard on you; it’s no time to complain and curse. It’s time to learn how to fly. It’s time to learn to do your job even better. When your department or your company is taken over by a new boss; it’s no time to gossip and organise a resistance march or a go-slow. When the company changes from its conventional way of doing things, it’s no time to influence people against the new visionary. It is time to learn how to fly my brother, my sister! Count it all joy when your nest is stirred and your furthers are unruffled for it is the best time for you to stretch your wings out and flip flap once, twice, thrice and fly into the territory of complete freedom. Why sit you there and complain until you die? 

The four leprous men faced themselves and talked to themselves eyeball to eyeball. They did not complain about their health condition. They did not complain about the war. They refused to sit there until they die. Are you? Maybe things are still working well for you in your place of employment and you relax. The Bible is warning us in the book of Exodus chapter one verse eight; “Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph” Your buddy boss will one day be promoted, transferred or fired. Soon a king who knows no Joseph will come to power and stir your nest. Don’t wait there until this happens. Arise and learn to fly. How long are you going to keep that position because you are being favoured by your senior or political system? When are you going to be on your own? It’s time to learn to fly.

You may have being favoured by the BEE programme: well and good. But learn to fly on your own my friend. You see favours are like jump starters. You’ve got to start and move on your own. Favours are like hospital drips or a life-saving machine in the hospital. You’ve got to learn to breathe on your own; if you don’t; the machine will soon be switched off and you die. 

Some of you are staying not far from your parents. Every time you want to be on your own with your spouse or friends, you take your children home. Your parents baby-sit for you free of charge. My friend; your parents cannot baby-sit you and your children as well. Learn to be on your own. Learn to fly on your own. If you need a baby sitter, employ one and pay her. Simple things but they hinder you from learning how to fly on your own. Eating at home when you feel a bit lazy to cook is refusing to leave the nest and learn to fly on your own.

Do you live with pensioners and you count their grants as part of your income? Have you gathered all the children in your family around you in order to augment your income with their grants? It’s a sad thing that we see in our communities these days. Some don’t work. They cash on failing marriages, some on orphaned children. How do you find it right to be taken care of by children? I mean if you are not working and have no income, do something about it. On the other hand, if you are working and your income is not enough; rather than depending on children’s grant, do something about it. Refuse any form of comfortable.

When Israel left Egypt, God became their teacher. Remember, they had no skill at all other than as beasts of labor, making bricks and carrying heavy burdens. God stirred up the nests and forced them out of Egypt. Don’t be fooled by their complains in Egypt. They were already used to their hardship and were comfortable; hence they mentioned the pots of meat and fish when they failed their first flight lessons in the wilderness. 

I urge you my friend; refuse to settle for bare minimum. Refuse to be comfortable with uncomfortable circumstances. Learn to fly and fly away. Learn to be the best in what you are doing and become a hot property. Why sit you there until you die? Quit thinking of pension. You are too young to wait for pension to give you the first taste of money. Why sit you there until you retire? You can improve your education or acquire new skills and fly away. If you want to pension at your present employment; good. But improve your resume and climb the corporate ladder. You cannot enter that company as a clerk and retire as a clerk. Learn how to fly and fly into the next position. You were being created to release all the faculties God endowed on you. How do you do that? You do that by learning how to fly.

God bless you as you refuse to be angry with me and stretch your wings and learn to fly.

REMEMBER, YOU LEARN TO FLY BY FLYING