Soaring like an eagle or walking like a turkey?
Do you ever wonder which one you're doing on any particular day? I'd like to think that I soar like an eagle every day, but in reality, I'm walking like a turkey most all of the time. Sure, I get some air time every once in a while, but mostly, yeah, walking like and with the turkeys.
I remember an old saying "It's hard to soar like an eagle when the turkeys get you down", and another version says "It's hard to soar like an eagle when you're surrounded by turkeys". Now, we can interpret this in several ways, one way is pretty obvious. The turkeys that most people believe they are surrounded by are the people who hold them back from their hopes, and their dreams. They believe that if they can just break free of the turkeys they would be rich, famous, good-looking looking, or whatever floats their boat. But that's only one version of the turkeys that seem to get us down.
If we look around us, the 'turkeys' that are there are poverty, unemployment, disease, and dissension. There are the homeless, although I wouldn't count them as turkeys, per se, the under and uneducated. Think about this. Just last week, President Obama kiboshed the Keystone Pipeline which would have created no less than 70,000 jobs. You read that right, 70k. It would have reduced our dependence on foreign oil, but the environmentalists took a step back and said, hey, wait a minute! Do you know what that will do to our natural resources? Part of me sees where the President was in a Catch-22 sort of situation, the other part of me was deeply disappointed that we are still dependent on foreign oil. I mean, really, 70k jobs created in a country where unemployment is running rampant. Folks are having to get extensions on their benefits because they can't find jobs and in a situation that could have put so many back to work having the rug pulled out from underneath them had to have been quite a blow.
Poverty is another deeply disturbing turkey here in this country. The United States is considered to be one of the richest countries in the world. Our scientific and technological breakthroughs are astounding. We have some of the highest paid workers in the world and yet we have poverty just outside our back doors. It is said that if you only have but a few coins in a dish somewhere in your home you are richer than 8% of the population of the world. That means that say you have .75 cents in various denominations of coin in a dish you're rich. Hard to wrap your brain around that one? Yeah, I agree, especially when that electric bill comes in at over three hundred bucks and I have seventy-five cents in a dish to my name until payday. Poverty means so much more than being able to make ends meet from one paycheck to another; it means there are some in this country who are unable to meet even their basic needs to get through the day. Yes, in this country. Look at our inner cities and you will find that, look on street corners and you will find that; look in our homeless shelters and you will see an abundance of that.
In addition to poverty, we have disease. According to studies, low-income, racial, and ethnic demographics have a higher rate of disease than those who are well-educated and have employment. Personally, I think that could be biased, but after reading study after study, I have found the demographic instances to be consistent across the board, and the biggest demographic, again, is the inner cities. Obesity, cancer, diabetes, and AIDS are higher in this demographic than anywhere else. The lack of health insurance or routine care is the biggest factor. I heard last week on a newscast that Scarlet Fever is back and wondered how soon smallpox and other diseases that we thought we had eradicated would return.
Dissension among the classes is a huge turkey. Look at any city; Houston, L.A., New York, D.C., and you will see gangs in abundance and they're not just relegated to the big cities. You can find gangs in even small towns; the Aryan Nation is out there, the KKK...they're just out there and waiting to cause a ruckus. There are attitudes between the haves and the have-nots; black and white, it is just a matter of human nature and has been since Cain and Abel.
So what does this all have to do with you and me? Well, we are charged with looking out for others. The Bible says that we are to look after the widows and the orphans. Some time ago, folks looked after each other, whether it was on their blocks; in their own family circles; or on the prairies, we all made sure that if someone had a need that need was met. A barn needs raising? Sure! Fry up some chicken make some iced tea and potato salad and that barn is raised in a day. Did someone's house burn down? Casseroles were made, clothes were gone through, and pantries were raided to help with the need. We still see this today, but unfortunately in very small measures. I guess I'm pointing this out as much to me as to anyone else. I moan and groan about not being able to make the bills, about having to push them until the very last minute that I can get. I complain that I'm tired of hamburger or chicken every day when some folks don't even have bread to eat. I guess that I could actually say that I'm probably the biggest turkey keeping me down, and for me to soar, my mindset has to change.
Is there a need that you see before you that you can take care of? Do it. I know that sometimes even the smallest effort creates the biggest comforts. Have a call to help someone financially but can't make it? Take it to prayer. Yeah, cliche I know, but you would be surprised how well it works. In doing this you and I will find out how strong our faith is and will find out if our turkeys, whatever or whomever they may be are bigger than our God or our God is bigger than our "turkeys". Personally, I'm kinda tired of walking like a turkey and would much rather spread my wings and soar like an eagle.
I remember an old saying "It's hard to soar like an eagle when the turkeys get you down", and another version says "It's hard to soar like an eagle when you're surrounded by turkeys". Now, we can interpret this in several ways, one way is pretty obvious. The turkeys that most people believe they are surrounded by are the people who hold them back from their hopes, and their dreams. They believe that if they can just break free of the turkeys they would be rich, famous, good-looking looking, or whatever floats their boat. But that's only one version of the turkeys that seem to get us down.
If we look around us, the 'turkeys' that are there are poverty, unemployment, disease, and dissension. There are the homeless, although I wouldn't count them as turkeys, per se, the under and uneducated. Think about this. Just last week, President Obama kiboshed the Keystone Pipeline which would have created no less than 70,000 jobs. You read that right, 70k. It would have reduced our dependence on foreign oil, but the environmentalists took a step back and said, hey, wait a minute! Do you know what that will do to our natural resources? Part of me sees where the President was in a Catch-22 sort of situation, the other part of me was deeply disappointed that we are still dependent on foreign oil. I mean, really, 70k jobs created in a country where unemployment is running rampant. Folks are having to get extensions on their benefits because they can't find jobs and in a situation that could have put so many back to work having the rug pulled out from underneath them had to have been quite a blow.
Poverty is another deeply disturbing turkey here in this country. The United States is considered to be one of the richest countries in the world. Our scientific and technological breakthroughs are astounding. We have some of the highest paid workers in the world and yet we have poverty just outside our back doors. It is said that if you only have but a few coins in a dish somewhere in your home you are richer than 8% of the population of the world. That means that say you have .75 cents in various denominations of coin in a dish you're rich. Hard to wrap your brain around that one? Yeah, I agree, especially when that electric bill comes in at over three hundred bucks and I have seventy-five cents in a dish to my name until payday. Poverty means so much more than being able to make ends meet from one paycheck to another; it means there are some in this country who are unable to meet even their basic needs to get through the day. Yes, in this country. Look at our inner cities and you will find that, look on street corners and you will find that; look in our homeless shelters and you will see an abundance of that.
In addition to poverty, we have disease. According to studies, low-income, racial, and ethnic demographics have a higher rate of disease than those who are well-educated and have employment. Personally, I think that could be biased, but after reading study after study, I have found the demographic instances to be consistent across the board, and the biggest demographic, again, is the inner cities. Obesity, cancer, diabetes, and AIDS are higher in this demographic than anywhere else. The lack of health insurance or routine care is the biggest factor. I heard last week on a newscast that Scarlet Fever is back and wondered how soon smallpox and other diseases that we thought we had eradicated would return.
Dissension among the classes is a huge turkey. Look at any city; Houston, L.A., New York, D.C., and you will see gangs in abundance and they're not just relegated to the big cities. You can find gangs in even small towns; the Aryan Nation is out there, the KKK...they're just out there and waiting to cause a ruckus. There are attitudes between the haves and the have-nots; black and white, it is just a matter of human nature and has been since Cain and Abel.
So what does this all have to do with you and me? Well, we are charged with looking out for others. The Bible says that we are to look after the widows and the orphans. Some time ago, folks looked after each other, whether it was on their blocks; in their own family circles; or on the prairies, we all made sure that if someone had a need that need was met. A barn needs raising? Sure! Fry up some chicken make some iced tea and potato salad and that barn is raised in a day. Did someone's house burn down? Casseroles were made, clothes were gone through, and pantries were raided to help with the need. We still see this today, but unfortunately in very small measures. I guess I'm pointing this out as much to me as to anyone else. I moan and groan about not being able to make the bills, about having to push them until the very last minute that I can get. I complain that I'm tired of hamburger or chicken every day when some folks don't even have bread to eat. I guess that I could actually say that I'm probably the biggest turkey keeping me down, and for me to soar, my mindset has to change.
Is there a need that you see before you that you can take care of? Do it. I know that sometimes even the smallest effort creates the biggest comforts. Have a call to help someone financially but can't make it? Take it to prayer. Yeah, cliche I know, but you would be surprised how well it works. In doing this you and I will find out how strong our faith is and will find out if our turkeys, whatever or whomever they may be are bigger than our God or our God is bigger than our "turkeys". Personally, I'm kinda tired of walking like a turkey and would much rather spread my wings and soar like an eagle.
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