Monday, July 18, 2011

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Will you break loose?


Have you observed an elephant in the circus? During the show, this huge animal does things that far exceed his strength. But before he enters, he remains a prisoner, quiet and restrained only by a chain that binds one of its legs to a small stake driven into the ground. The stake is only a small piece of wood. And even if it were thicker, its obvious that he, being able to overthrow a tree with its strength, could easily break loose and escape.

What a mystery. Why doesn't the elephant break loose?

The elephant in the circus doesn't break loose because he was used to being treated this way since a very young age. Imagine the young elephant being born a prisoner, in that moment the little elephant pushed, struggled just to break loose. And after all its effort, he couldn't break loose. The stake was too heavy. He tried and tried but nothing. Until one day, already tired, it accepted its destiny: to remain chained to the wooden stake, balancing its body left and right, eternally, waiting for the moment to enter the show.

So, that enormous elephant doesn't break loose because he believes he can't. In order for him to break loose something unexpected must happen for a example, a fire. The fear of the fire would make the elephant desperate to break loose and flee.

That happens so many times with us! We live believing in a bunch of things, "I can't have that", "I can't be that", "I won't ever get that", simply because when we were small and unexperienced, something didn't work out right and we received so many "no's" that "stake" was driven in the back of our mind with so much strength that we forget our creativity and just accept it as a simple, "I've always been that way."

I could say that the fire for us would be: the loss of a job, illness of someone close who had no money to do the treatment, or something very serious to make us leave this area of comfort.

The only way to try something new is to lose our fear of confronting this issue, separate emotions from our faith and to not be afraid of breaking these chains! Do as it is written, "And be not conformed to this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, pleasing and perfect will of God." Don't wait until the "circus" catches on fire to begin to change. Go in faith! 

"A servant that has the same characteristics as God does not only do His work, but overall, His will."