HERE’S something for you, and it’s not an April Fool’s Day joke, learn to switch channels! Have you noticed that telling yourself or others not to worry doesn’t work. The only way to break it is to replace it. Whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things. In other words, switch the channel! Open up worry, because fear involves torment. Worry torments you; your imagination runs amok, conjuring up all kinds of scary scenarios. But it’s also illogical; when you take it apart rationally and systemically, it loses its power to control you.
Climb above it. There’s a story of a well-known person who was flying over the Mississippi River one day when the sky grew dark. ‘We can’t see where we’re going!’ he exclaimed. Calmly the pilot replied, ‘We just need to rise above the ground heat, dust and smoke.’ After climbing another 300 metres they emerged into a clear, beautiful world. It’s called faith ‘the radar that pierces through the fog. When worry tries to fog you in, you can rise above it. Soar like the eagles!
This reminds me of the story of a baby eagle that fell out of its nest. A farmer found the eagle, and brought him to the chicken coop with his other chickens. As time passed, the baby eagle grew up learning to do what chickens do. He clucked, he strutted around the coop pecking at the corn and even tried his voice at the morning wake-up call. Slowly the farmer realized that since the bird had been raised as a chicken that it actually believed itself to be a chicken. So the farmer lifted the bird onto the fence surrounding the chicken coop and said, “Stretch your wings and fly.” The eagle only looked blankly at the man and clucked. He jumped off the fence and continued doing what chickens do.
The farmer was disappointed and depressed, he knew the eagle was meant for bigger things than just being chicken and next day carried the eagle to the top of a high mountain. They could not see the farm nor the chicken coop from this great height. The farmer lifted the eagle on his outstretched arm and pointed high into the sky where the bright sun was beckoning above. He spoke: “Eagle! You are an eagle!
You belong to the sky and not to the earth. Stretch your wings and fly.” This time the eagle stared skyward into the bright sun, straightened his large body, and stretched his massive wings. His wings moved, slowly at first, then surely and powerfully and with a mighty screech of an eagle, he flew high and away. What are you? A chicken waiting for the sky to fall on your head, or an eagle who can soar above your fears? Switch channels from chicken to eagle and soar high..!
—Email: bobsbanter@gmail.com
