One windy spring day, I observed young people having fun using the
wind to fly their kites. Multicolored creations of varying shapes and
sizes filled the skies like beautiful birds darting and dancing in the
heady atmosphere above the earth. As the strong winds gusted against the
kites, a string kept them in check. Instead of blowing away with the
wind, they arose against it to achieve great heights. They shook and
pulled, but the restraining string and the cumbersome tail kept them in
tow, facing upward and against the wind. As the kites struggled and
trembled against the string, they seemed to say, “Let me go! Let me go! I
want to be free!”
They soared beautifully even as they fought the
imposed restriction of the string. Finally, one of the kites succeeded
in breaking loose. “Free at last” it seemed to say. “Free to fly with
the wind.”
Yet freedom from restraint simply put it at the mercy of an
unsympathetic breeze. It fluttered ungracefully to the ground and landed
in a tangled mass of weeds and string against a dead bush. “Free at
last” — free to lie powerless in the dirt, to be blown helplessly along
the ground, and to lodge lifeless against the first obstruction.
How much like kites we sometimes are. The Lord gives us adversity and
restrictions, rules to follow from which we can grow and gain strength.
Restraint is a necessary counterpart to the winds of opposition. Some
of us tug at the rules so hard that we never soar to reach the heights
we might have obtained. We keep part of the commandment and (pardon the
pun) never rise high enough to get our tails off the ground.
Let us each rise to the great heights our Heavenly Father has in
store for us, recognizing that some of the restraints that we may chafe
under are actually the steadying force that helps us ascend and achieve.
Lessons From Life, Chapter 12 – Free To Soar – Wayne B. Lynn
No comments:
Post a Comment