What life hack tops them all? This is the daily disturbance blood gas with Anthony on the evening. The fable of the eagle and the chicken. Let me read this famous fable and reflect upon this as you listen to it.
Remember, the question today is what life hack tops them all? So a fable is told about an eagle that thought he was a chicken. When the eagle is very small, he fell from the safety of his nest. A chicken farmer found an eagle, brought him to the farm, and raised him in a chicken, coop, among his many chickens.
The eagle grew up doing what chickens do, living like a chicken and believing he was a chicken. A naturalist came to the chicken farm to see if what he had heard about an eagle acting like a chicken was really true. He knew that an eagle is king of the sky. He was surprised to see the eagle strutting around the chicken coop, packing up the ground acting very much like a chicken.
The farmer explained to the naturalist that the bird was no longer an eagle. He was now a chicken because he had been trained to be a chicken and he believed that he was a chicken. Nothing against chickens, okay? But you really shouldn't be whom you were not meant to be.
Okay, I'm going ahead of myself here. The naturalist knew there was more to this great bird than his action showed as he pretended to be a chicken. He was born an eagle and had the heart of an eagle and nothing could change that. The man lifted the eagle onto the fence, surrounding the chicken coop and said, eagle thou art an eagle, stretch forth thy wings and fly.
The eagle moved slightly, only to look at the man than he glanced down at his home among the chickens in the chicken coop where he was comfortable. He jumped off the fence and continued doing what chickens do. The farmer was satisfied. I told you it was a chicken, he said.
The naturalist returned the next day and tried again to convince the farmer and the eagle that the eagle was born for something greater. He took the eagle to the top of the farmhouse and spoke to him, eagle thou art an eagle. Thou dost belong to the sky and not to the earth, stretch forth thy wings and fly. The large bird looked at the man.
Then again down into the chicken coop he jumped from the man's arm onto the roof of the farmhouse. Knowing what eagles are really about the naturalist asked the farmer to let him try one more time. He would return the next day and prove that this bird was an eagle. The farmer convinced otherwise that it is a chicken.
The naturalist returned the next morning to the chicken farm and took the eagle in the farmer some distance away to the foot of a high mountain. They could not see the farm nor the chicken coop from this new setting. The man held an eagle on his arm and pointed high into the sky where the bright sun was beckoning above. He spoke eagle thou art an eagle.
Thou dost belong to the sky and not to the earth, stretch forth thy wings and fly. This time the eagle stared skyward into the bright sun, straighten his large body and stretched his massive wings. His wings moved slowly at first, then surely and powerfully. With a mighty screech of an eagle he flew by Jamie Glenn, the greatest aquaphor, at least in application to my own life.
I was about 19 when I found out that I didn't have to work so hard to deserve God's blessing and approval in my life and heaven in the next life as a reward. I found out to my surprise what was already in front of me all my life in scripture that salvation was a gift, that going to heaven was not a reward but was a present to be received. Not that good works which I thought was the key, not that good works was not important, but it was not a condition for salvation and acceptance, it was a natural result out of the overflow of the new life, the hack that would happen with Jesus Christ in me. So it was about June 1986 where instead of doing everything I could possibly do, I simply accepted the gift of salvation and asked Jesus to be my savior, to enter my heart, my life and to hack it from within, to change it from within.
Today I know I'm saved, I'm far from perfect, the journey from being saved, right, and a fateful child of God. To make him not just my savior but Lord every day of my life is a lifetime journey, but indeed I am a work, his work in progress. I encourage you to consider that, that for me is the greatest hack in my life. Your should be what has been, what will be, yours.
You are, if I'm allowed to guess, an eagle, an eagle yet to soar, a broader sky, a heavenly place awaits you. God bless you and I pray that you, if not yet eventually, will discover your greatest hack in your life. It's a Friday and of course it's time to reflect, number one, what hack do you need in your life today? Ready?
Fire. In the name. Number two, can you help someone within your authority, under your authority or your influence? By helping this person ask the question, why, how and who, so that he or she can experience a life hack even as we speak.
And finally, what hack or hacks have worked with you and for you, the past days, weeks and months, that you should be acknowledging, that you should be encouraged by, that you should be continuing and taking care of. These hacks were meant not just to make things more convenient, but to make life more meaningful. Keep going my friend, keep going.