Are You an Eagle or a Kiwi?
It’s early morning at Marine Corps Air Station El Toro in southern California many years ago. The coastal fog is dark, damp and thick as I taxi out in my fighter jet. You literally can see only about a plane length in front of you and the only way you can find the duty runway is to follow the white line on the taxiway. If I weren’t intimately familiar with the airport, I would have never found the take-off runway. Ground control frequency is quiet, there is no one else taxing for take-off. Most pilots are waiting for the fog to start to lift.
I’m cleared for take-off on runway 7 left by El Toro tower. Again, I’m the only one on frequency. I add full throttle, check the engine instruments, made a one last quick check of the flight controls and release the brakes. The jet jumps forward like something that has just come alive. Now everything is gray fog, a gray fishbowl. The only thing that is preventing disaster is the white dash line down the middle of the runway and my ability to keep the nosegear of the jet right on it. If I lose that white line and go off the side of the runway, my goose is cooked, literally, by 6,000 gallons of jet fuel. However with training, proficiency and confidence, this instrument take-off is a very doable task.
The airspeed indicator shows 125 knots. A little back stick and we’re airborne. Now even the white line is gone. Total concentration on the artificial horizon.
Got to keep the wings level and climb. Vertical speed indicator shows a nice positive rate of climb and I can relax a little. The hardest part is over. Can’t relax completely though, because Saddleback mountain is directly in front of me and I’m still in the soup. Got to turn right to my departure heading and continue the climb until I’m on top of the fog.
Minutes later we break out on top to a most exhilarating view! The sky is totally cloudless and a stunning blue color. The rush of adrenaline in rising to the challenge of the take-off and conquering it, coupled with the awesome beauty of God’s creation is an unbelievable experience. On top of all that, I can
see San Diego to the south and past LA to the north and I’m the only one flying. I own the sky. I tune in a local radio station and listen to Frank Sinatra
sing "Fly Me to the Moon" as I barrel-roll around the sky. Pre-Jesus, I thought it couldn’t get any better than this. I’m free from the bonds of earth! I’m
making like an eagle while the rest of the world is down in the fog. When I land, I tease the pilots waiting for the weather to improve - "when are you
kiwi’s going to fly!"
We are all familiar with eagles. They soar majestically with outstretched wings upon the updrafts around mountains and even ride fearlessly in the angry winds of thunderstorms. They rise higher and higher with no effort. They nest in rocky crags in high places where no one else goes. With their excellent eyesight they are able to spot their prey and swoop down and seize it and crush it with their mighty talons. They are the king of birds.
There is another bird, not as well known as the eagle. It has no tail and tiny two-inch wings, which for all practical purposes are useless. It can’t fly!
It looks like a cross between a hedgehog and an anteater. It is found on only one island in the world. It is a kiwi. Beyond its odd appearance, the kiwi
has some downright odd traits as well: it’s nocturnal; it’s nearly blind, seeing only six feet at night and two feet past its beak during the day; it uses the
nostrils at the end of its beak to smell worms buried under the dirt; it refuses to bathe and, in fact, never drinks a drop of water its entire life. It’s a
miserable excuse for a bird. It’s a flightless bird. It’s a kiwi.
As Christians, we were created for FREEDOM!
"And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.So if a son frees you, then you will truly be free." John 8:32f
"For freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery." Galations 5:1
"The Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, There is freedom." 2 Cor 3:17
"Be free." 1 Peter 2:16
We are meant to slip the bonds of the world, the flesh and the devil and rule and reign in Christ in heavenly places. We are meant to soar like an eagle on the wings of the Holy Spirit.
"The LORD is the eternal God, creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint nor grow weary, and his knowledge is beyond compare.He gives strength to the fainting; for the weak he makes vigor abound.Though young men faint and grow weary, and youths stagger and fall,They that hope in the LORD will renew their strength, they will soar as with eagles’ wings; They will run and not grow weary, walk and not grow faint." Isaiah 40:28-31
When this life’s troubles come our way, (and they are guaranteed!) we have a power in the Holy Spirit to be an overcomer in spite of them. We were created to be free, to be eagle Christians! We were created to breathe the fresh, invigorating, sweet, so very sweet air of the Holy Spirit. We must be free. Until our spirits are free, until we soar with the Spirit of God, until we taste Jesus personally, we are not really living. We can live and die on this earth and never really have lived! Am I really alive in Christ? Does my spirit soar in freedom? Or am I a kiwi Christian?
The only way to truly soar in the spirit is to be intimate with Jesus. It’s easy to tell a kiwi Christian (I was one not too long ago.) I knew the stories of Jesus but I didn’t know Jesus as a personal intimate friend. I could introduce people to stories about Jesus, but I couldn’t introduce them TO Jesus. I could tell you what Jesus said 2,000 years ago, but I couldn’t tell you what He said to me in prayer this week. I knew Jesus worked many miracles 2,000 years ago, but I couldn’t tell you of any in my life. I was an Old Testament, keeping the rules Christian. I was working my way up to God, trying to be "good." It was a crashing bore. I knew nothing about life in the power of the Holy Spirit. I was a kiwi plain and simple.
Then I met Jesus! It was like breaking out of the fog in my jet at El Toro in California. It was exhilarating, exciting and awesome beyond belief! It
was unknown territory. It was soaring in the Spirit. It was and is wild and adventurous. He has healed me and set me free. The life I live now is not my own, but Christ living in me. The jet stuff was garbage compared to Jesus. Don’t settle for anything short of life on high with Christ Jesus. Don’t ever plateau and get comfortable with where you are in your life with Jesus. That’s from the devil. Always stretch your wings higher and higher in the power of the Holy Spirit. If you listen closely you will hear Jesus calling you up higher! Tell Him you are ready for take-off!
High Flight
Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious burning blue,
I’ve topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew.
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
- John Gillespie Magee, Jr
***** JESUS IS LORD *****
