CHAPTER 1
Understanding the Eagle Mentalityvs. the Chicken Mentality
"But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength;they shall mount up with wings as eagles;they shall run and not be weary;and they shall walk and not faint" (Isaiah 40:31).
The Bible, God's inspired Word, is powerful,motivational, life transforming and at timesmind-boggling. What I love most about the Bible isthat it is always relevant to our situation and crossesthe barrier of time. It has survived changes incultures, norms, practices, ideologies, worldview andkingdoms. In it, one finds the answers to the mostcomplex challenges in life. It is composed of prose,poetry, history, theology, personal letters and muchmore.
Through the Bible, God speaks directly to His people.In fact, the Bible is the primary way through which theLord speaks to the heart of His children. The Bible isuseful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and trainingin righteousness (II Timothy 3:16). When God speaksto us through His Word, He uses literary devices thatmake His thoughts easier to understand. Parables areone such device. Parables are short allegorical storiesdesigned to illustrate or teach some truth, religiousprinciple, or moral lesson. Simply put, parables areheavenly truth with earthly significance.
In many cases in the Bible, the explanations ofparables are given after the parables, for example,the parable of the sower (Matthew 13:3-23). At othertimes, the parables appear to be complex and offerlittle or no accompanying explanation. An excellentexample is when the prophet Nathan tells David aparable of a rich man who steals a poor man's lamb(II Samuel 12:1-24). In the cases where we are notprovided an explanation, we should pray for God togive us His "eyes" to see into the supernatural, earsto "hear" what the Lord is saying, and the mind tocomprehend the spiritual implications.
The apparent complexity of a parable shouldnot discourage us from seeking its meaning andsignificance. It is a unique way of painting pictureswith words. It is guaranteed that when we approachGod with the willingness to listen, He will make knownHis will. The Bible declares in Psalms 25:9, "He guidesthe humble in what is right and teaches them His way."We are warned in Scripture that if we have "blinded"eyes, "heavy" ears and "dull" hearts, we will be unableto repent and be forgiven. Praise God that He has notshut our ears, eyes and heart to His truth. Even whendifficult parables are given without an explanation,God's Spirit is able to communicate to us the truemeaning of the parable.
As we read the parables, we notice that Godlikens (associates or compares) His people with manythings. In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5), Hecompares believers to salt and light. He says, "You arethe salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness,how can it be made salty again? It is no longer goodfor anything, except to be thrown and trampled bymen. You are the light of the world. A city on a hillcannot be hidden."
In John 15:1-17, we are compared to branches ona vine that the Father prunes in order for them tobecome fruitful. In Psalms 1, the Bible says that thegodly are like trees planted by the streams of waterwhich yields fruit in season and whose leaf does notwither. In John 10:11, Jesus said that He is the goodshepherd and we are His sheep. Isaiah 53:6, says,"We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us hasturned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on Himthe iniquity of us all." In II Timothy, we are encouragedto be like good soldiers as we endure suffering.
It is therefore irrefutable that God uses parables topaint pictures in our minds about how He expects usto live and how to fully employ the skills, abilities andresources He has made available to us. Salt seasonsfood, light shines, branches produce fruit, sheep hearand follow their master, soldiers obey orders andendure hardship while seeking to accomplish at allcost their assigned mission. God has chosen to usethe literary technique of simile (a figure of speech thatindirectly compares two different things by employingthe words "like", "as", or "than") comparing humansto items such as salt, light, branches and so forth.The challenge is that, in some instances, we are notfully aware of the function, ability, skill, and value ofwhat we are likened to, and therefore we fail to graspthe message and meaning of what the Lord is tryingto convey to us. Consequently, we read but do notunderstand and therefore cannot take hold of whatGod has destined for us before the foundation of theworld.
Before going further, allow me to illustrate thepoint that I want to make. In Proverb 6:6, the Biblesays, "Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its waysand be wise!" Later on in Proverb 30:25, the Word ofGod declares, "Ants are creatures of little strength,yet they store up their food in the summer." Do yousee the implication? God wants us to learn from ants.Even though they are small, insignificant, nuisance,destructive, disliked and unappreciated, yet there arethings God wants us to learn from them. Those whostudy ants (myrmecologists) have remarked that if weapply some of the simple principles ants apply daily;our lives would never be the same. Allow me to sharefour apparent principles with you.
The first principle learned from ants is that ofperformance. In order to perform with efficiency,there must be a plan and there must be fullparticipation. When you watch a column of ants, youquickly realize that the ants seem to have a plan andthere is full participation on the part of every ant. Theant colony is a community. Very seldom do you see anant by itself. They work together to build colonies thatare up to 35 feet below the ground. Because of theirpartnership, the ants are able to build a city in whichthere is a complex network of rooms, designated forvarious activities. This concept sharply contradicts ourWestern ideology of individualism. Ants, irrespective ofsize, shape or color, live together as a family and...
