The Search For My Identity Series

“Super Sized Life” part 1 (The Search for My Identity)

Brian A. Moon

While walking through the forest one day, a man found a young eagle who had fallen out of his nest. He took it home and put it in his barnyard where it soon learned to eat and behave like the chickens. One day a naturalist passed by the farm and asked why it was that the king of all birds should be confined to live in the barnyard with the chickens. The farmer replied that since he had given it chicken feed and trained it to be a chicken, it had never learned to fly. Since it now behaved as the chickens, it was no longer an eagle.

"Still it has the heart of an eagle," replied the naturalist, "and can surely be taught to fly." He lifted the eagle toward the sky and said, "You belong to the sky and not to the earth. Stretch forth your wings and fly." The eagle, however, was confused. He did not know who he was, and seeing the chickens eating their food, he jumped down to be with them again. The naturalist took the bird to the roof of the house and urged him again, saying, "You are an eagle. Stretch forth your wings and fly." But the eagle was afraid of his unknown self and world and jumped down once more for the chicken food. Finally the naturalist took the eagle out of the barnyard to a high mountain. There he held the king of the birds high above him and encouraged him again, saying, " You are an eagle. You belong to the sky. Stretch forth your wings and fly." The eagle looked around, back towards the barnyard and up to the sky. Then the naturalist lifted him straight towards the sun and it happened that the eagle began to tremble. Slowly he stretched his wings, and with a triumphant cry, soared away into the heavens.

For many people life is a lot like that story, only they never stretch out their wings and attempt to fly.

They spend their lives living the life of chickens when they could be living the life of an eagle. That is what we are going to be talking about for the next three weeks in a new series called “Super Sized Life.”

We all dream of that life up in the clouds, soaring and diving with freedom and power, but all to often we stay in the barnyard picking at chicken feed. We all can relate to this and tonight we begin with the first key to unlocking the life we have always wanted, the fulfilled life like that of an eagle. The first thing we must find is who we are… Who am I? Where do I fit in life? Am I valuable? These are all identity questions that must be answered. The eagle from the story was not a common chicken, but he did not know this until someone came along and showed him who he really was. And that is my goal tonight, I want to be like that naturalist that came along and noticed that the eagle was unaware of his true identity. I want to show you your true identity, and help you unlock the first key to finding the “Super Sized Life.” The search for ones identity is a task we all have gone through and for most of us are still going through.

It is tough to find out who the real me is?

“Today we see millions desperately searching for their own shadows, devouring movies, plays, novels, and self-help books… that promise to help them locate their missing identities. In the United States, the manifestations of personality crisis are bizarre. Its victims hurl themselves into group therapy, mysticism, or sexual games. They itch for change but are terrified by it. They urgently wish to leave their present existence and leap somehow to a new life – to become what they are not.” – Alvin Toffler

We try to find our identity in many places, and many of those places are destructive. Girls crave love and attention so much that they settle for anything that even resembles it, mainly from guys looking for only one thing. Guys crave status and respect and when they cannot find it they are fooled by its illusion in pornography and casual sex. Lonely people longing for approval fall into the world of drugs and alcohol, And insecure people strive to get to the top, only to find their identity lost when they finished second. In each case, people are looking for the fulfilled life, that life like the eagle, and instead they wind up more confused as to who they are, and where they fit into the world. We have all felt the sting of insignificance, and left wondering if life is even worth it. So where can we find the answers to who am I, and where do I belong, and am I even important to anyone. You might be surprised at the answer… Jesus Christ made a statement once 2,000 years ago that might blow your idea of Christianity out of the water.