Poem: Freedom to Soar

I wake every morning
To this nest that I love.
I truly love the softness around me.
It was made specifically
For my brothers and me.
I say it is more than enough.

My brothers poke at me often.
"You must leave this nest."
I laugh at such a thought.
Just how and why would I leave?
The answer is always the same.

The wind.

They constantly speak of it
And it's glory and splendor.
I have called to the wind
That it might show it's face.
My eyes have not seen it.
How then could I trust it?

If the wind is there
It has no interest in me.
I know in my heart that
There is no wind.
I cannot fly.
I will not try.

And yet...

From the comfort of the nest I love,
I see the beautiful sky above me.
Why so wide and so great
If not for us to explore and enjoy?
This nest cannot be all there is.
There must be so much more than this.

I stand at the precipice,
Viewing the chasm before me.
So constricted by fear and doubt.
I stretch out my wings,
Such delicate things,
My faith in them all but a drought.

They say I can fly.
I will surely die.
It’s entirely too… high.

They say that the wind will sustain me.
All I have to do is believe.
Can I trust? Yes, I must.
I slowly breathe in and stretch my wings...
Release! And panic.
I'm falling! Where is the...

WIND!!!!!!

Yes, I feel the push of it beneath me,
Supporting my glide after all.
It comes and it goes but somehow I know
That it will not allow me to fall.

I'm begging for more!
I'm learning to soar!

I've fallen in love with the wind, now my savior.
My disbelief I publicly rescind.
And, the role I have chosen
Is to call to the frozen
Who, like me, had no faith in the wind.

This, I think, is a rough picture of the path many of us have taken to become a God follower. At first, we are comfortable where we are and we believe in what we can see. We are presented the gospel and we reject it as foolishness. But eventually, we begin to wonder. We begin to doubt that what we see around us is all that there is, and we begin to search for answers. Many of us search and search and finally we begin to see truth in what the Bible teaches. The one thing we can't see is God Himself. And the existence of this God is the one thing we cannot prove without leaping. We must have faith enough to believe without knowing for sure what will happen.

And yet, when we do truly leap into the arms of our savior, we discover that He is there (and has always been there) to catch us. His presence sustains us, His Word enlightens us. We become something significantly better than we ever could have been on our own. And we enjoy a relationship that is loving, supporting, and uplifting. We are disciplined by God (thankfully) and are shown a path that leads to good places. We are loved unconditionally, something that some of us may have felt for the very first time in that moment of surrender. Others didn't feel it until later. Regardess, it is there and it is true. The God of the Universe loves you and is committed to what's best for you. And that is a beautiful thought.