To learn to fly, an eaglet needs its comfort disturbed. At birth, parent eagles carefully provide everything baby eagles need for growth, and in as easy a way as possible, such as dropping food into the eaglet’s beak. As the eaglet grows, parents change tactics and begin to make the eaglet work more. The parents eventually “stir up” the nest and remove some of its comforts. The baffled eaglet is essentially pushed out of the nest and forced to begin using its God-given wings in the open sky.
Would the eaglet leave the nest if it were not challenged to do so? Would it learn how to fly on its own? Would it know that it has the machinery and innate capability to do so if it were continually spoon-fed? The wise parent knows that the eaglet must be pushed out of its comfort zone and challenged to fend for itself for it to fly on its own.
In Scripture, God compares Himself to a parent eagle that “stirs up the nest” (Deuteronomy 32:10-11) and leads His people through the wilderness. Interestingly, He also warns them about getting too comfortable and forgetting their purpose (Deuteronomy 8:10-18). A key lesson for us today is that God needs to “stir up” our comfortable nest so that we can fulfill His purpose for us—to “go into all the world” and follow “the great missionary charter of Christ’s kingdom.”1 Comfort will prevent us from developing the way God intends; we need to be pushed out of the nest so we can fly.
The famous missionary David Livingstone was willing to forego a comfortable career in medicine so that he could take the gospel to the remotest parts of Africa. His nest was “stirred up” when he heard Dr. Moffat talk about the “smoke of a thousand villages” that received no gospel witness. Livingstone was willing to answer the call and go. Today, thousands of villages remain without a gospel witness. Billions of people need those like Livingstone who leave their comfortable nests behind. Allow God to stir your nest. This is the only way to fly.
