Recently our family was getting settled around the dinner table when our seven-year-old son halted all his usual bounciness and pointed. “What’s that?” he asked, staring out the back door.

We all looked to discover a young hawk perched on one of our deck chairs. I grabbed my phone and snapped this picture:

We were floored. What was this mighty bird of prey doing on the deck of our city bungalow? It was so beautiful and yet so out of place.

It wasn’t long before we realized something was terribly wrong. The poor bird tried to fly only to go in circles. It wobbled unnaturally. Eventually the hawk managed to fly away from our place, but we learned later, sadly, it died in our neighbor’s back yard. We dutifully, prayerfully laid the young bird to rest near a young tree in our back yard.

Well, this is just one of those sad things that happens, but it got me thinking. What can I learn from this? How am I like that hawk? How are we?

Beautiful and Out of Place

Seeing this young hawk on our deck was jarring because it was supposed to be somewhere else. A hawk’s massive wings, light body, and keen eyesight are designed for flight and perching in high places. Who hasn’t had to correct a car’s course abruptly because a soaring hawk or eagle held one’s attention a little too long?

Can you relate to this hawk? Do you ever feel out of place, like you are doing something you were not designed to do?

A lot of people feel that way, I think. It can happen gradually. We follow the predominant script of our culture. We study hard so we can go to a good school. We get good grades, earn a degree, and then it’s time to find a job. We can’t be too picky, we think, because rent’s due and we have student loans to pay.

Or maybe we are doing what we are designed to do, but only to an extent. We know we could do more of it if only we’d stop getting in our own way. We self-sabotage in a myriad of different ways.

When we fail to live out who we really are, we are like beautiful hawks perched atop deck chairs. (Tweet that!)

You Have What It Takes

If you feel this way, I want you to notice something. This hawk, though injured, was still an amazing sight to behold. Being out of place did not change the fact that the hawk was beautiful. In the same way, you have all you need—all the talents, all the drive, all the resources you need—to go a different direction.

This poor hawk was fatally wounded. Are you? I doubt it, but you might be hurt in some way that requires the help of others. Some wounds don’t simply “heal with time.” They need a more deliberate method. The stark reality is that your wound could be fatal if you don’t get some help. Please do that–for yourself and for all the people you have the potential of influencing for good.

Sometimes we are not fatally wounded, but we act like it. This hawk died, and that’s sad. But sadder still is the person who acts dead, who has the potential to be and do so much but chooses instead to stay put. I can think of nothing more tragic.

How does all this apply to me? Well, I do feel like I’m living out my calling to an extent, and I did get some help for my deep wounds a few years back (read: years of therapy!). But too often I am like that young hawk in that I don’t live up to my potential. I choose other things rather than doing the hard work of facing and embracing my calling. I’d like to take steps that move me progressively more and more into my calling.

A Little Question That Makes a Big Difference

I’ve been reading 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. It’s a classic that I had never read, so I finally picked it up. It’s a great book, and I recommend it.

But here’s what I want to emphasize. Covey begins the chapter on the third habit with this question: “What one thing could you do in your personal and professional life that, if you did on a regular basis, would make a tremendous positive difference in your life?”

That’s a great question, isn’t it? Here’s another way to word it: What’s one thing you could do that, if you did it each day, would help you tremendously toward living out your calling?

Start there.

And may we all, like the prophet said, “mount up with wings like eagles.”

Question: What’s one thing you could do that, if you did it each day, would help you tremendously toward living out your calling? You can leave a comment by clicking here.