Free Like a bird Strong Like an Eagle
(Michael Sendow)
[caption id="attachment_97815" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="From Animal Planet"][/caption] Most of us have heard the statement “free as a bird”. Birds are associated with freedom because of their ability to fly. They are not yoked or earthbound. They can escape out of a trap or fly away at will. Although all birds can fly, it’s the eagle’s superior flying power, among its other qualities, that has given it its name as the king of birds. It is not by accident that the eagle is the national emblem of The United States. The eagle is on the currency and in many of the states and federal buildings. America is a country that prides itself in freedom and democracy ( but not for DemoCrazy). Similarly, The Eagle (Garuda) is the symbol of Indonesia’s independence in 1945 and being use asa symbol of The Republic of Indonesia until now in many places, building, schools for very much the same reason.
Eagles are strong of heart and represent admirable qualities such as power, majesty and faithfulness—qualities that governments want to identify with. However, the quality that seems to stand out in the eagle is its sense of freedom. Nothing is more beautiful that to see an eagle soar against the sunset. It is said that the wingspan of an eagle measures eight to nine feet, and that with just one powerful downbeat of its wings, this hundred-pound bird can be airborne to 12,000 feet in just minutes! In fact, pilots have spotted them flying as high as 25,000 feet and going as much as 150 miles an hour.
Freedom was not intended by the founding father of The United States. God has put within each human being the desire to be free. You will kill the baby eagle if you try to help it get out of the egg, because it’s through the struggle that it develops its strength and will to live. In the same way, after nine months, a pregnant woman experiences the pain of contraction as the baby within her struggle to be free. So, even from birth, a human being desires to be free.
Freedom is one of the greatest gifts that God has given us. When we are treated unfairly because of our race, gender, age or religion that freedom is being taken away from us, He gives us freedom. God frees oppressed people who are held captive and imprisoned by a political system. But he also frees people from spiritual imprisonment—because that is at the heart of the matter.
Sounds like that still happening until these present days, doesn’t it? We no longer had the yoke of slavery around our necks, but in a sense, they still had it around our hearts. Like so many of us who are experiencing the ongoing affects of September 11, nation against nation war, race against another race all over the world, killing people everywhere, slaughtering, murdering and not only that but also demolition and destruction that taking place in so many area of life around the world, we are living in fear of being attacked and enslaved again or even being killed. As a result, we are being robbed of our true potential, and living less than human beings made in the image of our God.
What is the yoke that you are wearing around your neck that is choking out your true potential and causing you to live less than human? Is it low-self-esteem? Is it a physically or verbally abusive relationship? Are you wearing the yoke of guilt or shame because of a past mistake? Is it a yoke of habitual sin that you can seem to shake? Or are you bound by the fear of tragedy? Or by the fear of now-a-day situations which are unfair, no real justice, corrupt with all the nonsense inside and within government?
We must act like an eagle and have its power. This power to mount up with wings as eagles—to achieve our true potential—is the power that only God can give. Receive His power and fresh start in life. You can fly like an Eagle or a Garuda! You can be free as a bird!
