funny chickens

Today I was reding of the civil rights activist and Noble Laureate, Archbishop Desmond Tutu from the web site of Paige Kearin.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu shared a story that I found to be really meaningful, particularly because his life stood for people who were labled as "funny chickens" instead of "eagles" . I thought I would share with you for your mutual benefit.

Here is the story he told: " Did you hear of the story of the farmer who in his back yard had a number of chickens? He had many chickens but among them was a very strange looking chicken. I mean, it did the things that other chickens do, pecking away, scurrying and such. But no, there was something strange about this chicken. And then one day, along came a man who knew about these things. The farmer pointed out the strange chicken to the smart man. The man took a good look and says to the farmer, “no, no, no sir, that is not a chicken. That is an eagle”.

And the farmer gruffs, “Baloney!” And the man says, “Here, give it to me”. So the farmer hands over the strange looking chicken. The man takes the strange looking chicken and goes up to a tall mountain. He waits for the sun to rise. And when the sun rises, he holds up the strange looking chicken. Facing to the rising sun with his hands extended, the man whispers to the small creature in his hands, “fly… eagle… fly!”

And the strange looking chicken stretches out its wings, shakes himself and leaps off from the safety of the man’s hands. It takes off! The beautiful eagle soars and soars. It flies way away in the horizon. Do you know what God says to us? He says, “Hey, you’re no chicken. You’re an eagle. Fly…. Eagle… fly”. God wants us to stretch out our wings, shake ourselves and then take off. And soar and soar. We are made for goodness. We are made for laughter. We are made for joy. We are made for caring. We are made for transcendence. We are made for compassion.

Don’t let yourself be mislabeled.

Fly eagle fly!"