THE HEART OF AN EAGLE

Seems that a certain man went through the forest looking for any kind of a bird of interest and he came upon a little baby eagle that had fallen out of his nest. He took it home and put it in a pen with the chickens and the turkeys and the ducks.

Several years later a naturalist came by his house and passing through the garden said:
"Sir, that's an eagle, not a chicken."
"Yes Sir, but I've trained it to be a chicken. It's no longer an eagle, it's a chicken even though it measures 15' from tip to tip of his wings."
"No" said the naturalist, "It's an eagle, it has a heart of an eagle and if you let me, I'll make it soar to the heights of the heavens."
"No" said the owner, "it's a chicken. It will never fly."
They agreed to test it.
The naturalist picked up the eagle and said:
"Eagle, thou doest belong to the sky and not to this earth. Stretch forth thy wings and fly."
The eagle turned this way and that and very nervously looked down and then jumped to be with his friends the chickens.
The owner said:
"I told you it was a chicken."
"No" said the naturalist, "it's an eagle, give it another chance tomorrow."

So the next day he took it to the top of the house and said:
"Eagle, thou art an eagle, stretch forth thy wings and fly."
But again the eagle seeing the chickens jumped down and fared with them.
The owner said again:
"I told you it was a chicken."
"No" said the naturalist, "it's an eagle, it has a heart of an eagle and if you give it another chance it will soar like an eagle".
The next morning he arose early and took the eagle outside the city away from the house to the foot of a great mountain.
The sun was just rising gilding the top of the mountain with gold and every crack was glistening with the joy of that beautiful morning. He picked up the eagle.
"Eagle, thou art an eagle, thou doest belong to the sky, not to the earth, stretch forth thy wings and fly."
The eagle looked and trembled as if new life was coming to it but it did not fly. The naturalist then made it look straight into the sun. 
Suddenly it stretched forth it's mighty wings and with the screech of an eagle, it flew."

- Author Unknown

The beginning of early Christianity was also the beginning of the Great Apostasy. Within mere 30 years following Christ's ascension into heaven, the profound and simple truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ started to be blended with philosophies of men and eventually 'the wisdom of God was rejected as foolishness. The miracles of the Atonement, the Resurrection, and the ordinances were diluted and deleted. Men, blinded to the wisdom of God by their own intellectual conceit, added and subtracted at will from the truths revealed by God. Gradually and inevitably, these precious truths were changed, perverted, and lost. The simple was embellished, the holy corrupted, the truth falsified' (The Life and Teachings of Jesus and His Apostles, p. 229). Under the Saviour's admonition to take the Gospel to other nations, Paul and the Apostles took the Gospel beyond the walls of Jerusalem to dispersed Jews, then Samaritans and then the Gentiles, more specifically, the Mediterranean world ruled by the Roman Empire. The Gospel which they preached was grounded in the eyewitness testimony of Jesus for many had seen the Saviour following His resurrection, therefore, their testimony and message was not based on Christ's teachings only but more importantly, on their witness of His resurrection which left no room for speculation. This non-speculative nature of the Christian faith conflicted with the philosophical conjecture in the Mediterranean which was heavily under the Hellenic influence, meaning Greek philosophy. Where Jews sought signs, Greeks sought wisdom and it is the wisdom of men which they revered more than the simple truths of the Gospel. With time the Christian resistance to Greek philosophy broke down and the strange admixture of Christian truth with pagan philosophy and practice constituted the Great Apostasy (see The Life and Teachings of Jesus and His Apostles, p 233).

The tragedy of the Great Apostasy and the loss of simple truths of the Gospel cannot be over-stated. From about 100 A.D. until 1820, the children of men groped in darkness relying on the wisdom of men regarding their origin and destiny. Even today, despite the restoration of the truth, the world at large does not understand the meaning and purpose of life and looks to the wisdom of men, men who are 'ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth' (2 Timothy 3:7). This means many of us are confused not knowing who we truly are and what we can become. We cast our lot with men of the world who are as chickens pecking the group for gems of knowledge. We are looking down when we should be looking up. The tragedy of this is that the wisdom of men cannot elevate us above this telestial world. It teaches us to live here and now and gives no hope of anything better. The wisdom of men strives to keep us in the chicken coop not allowing us to believe that we are eagles meant for greater heights than this mortal sphere in this telestial world.

The restored Gospel of Jesus Christ teaches us of our divine nature. It teaches us that within each one of us are seeds of excellence, seeds of perfection, seeds of godhood. We are meant to soar to greater heights with our eyes fixed on the glory of the sun for the glory of the sun is also the glory of the "Son" by whom we receive the same glory unto ourselves. Let us be wise and not look to the philosophies of men but to the Son who disperses confusing doctrines and false teachings of men.We do not belong to the telestial realm with the chickens, pecking the crumbs of their wisdom. We are eagles who belong to the skies, reaching for the sun which reflects the glory of celestial kingdom, which is our eternal home. It is there we want to find rest, from all our burdens, from all our sorrows, from all our tears. We are meant for greatness to which only the Saviour can lift us. He is the one that gives might to our wings, He is the sun which shines brightly and guides us to our eternal home. He is the one who He gives power to those He loves and He loves those who would have Him be their God (1 Nephi 17:40).

"Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no fathoming of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint"

(Isaiah 40:28-31)

THE GREAT ONES

I am tired of sailing my little boat

Far inside of the harbour bar;

I want to be out where the big ships float –

Out in the deep, where the great ones are!

And should my frail craft prove too slight

For storms that sweep those wide seas o’er,

Better go down in the stirring fight

Than drowse to death by the sheltered shore!

     - Daisy Rhinehart

I imagine this is what we would have been like in our pre-existence, not content to stay intelligences without form and purpose. We wanted godhood and we accepted the price we had to pay to get it. The sheltered shore is never enough for the ones that want to be great. The truly great ones want the storm and the stirring fight and the grandeur that comes with victory. The truly great ones wanted to risk everything in order to gain everything. They are formidable souls of men that did not flinch in battle with the opposing forces who wanted to keep us in the sheltered shore. They stood firm, believed and accepted when the Father said:

"All that I have I desire to give you - not only my wealth, but also my position and standing among men. That which I have I can easily give you, but that which I am you must obtain for yourself. You will qualify for your inheritance by learning what I have learned and by living as I have lived.  I will give you the laws and principles by which I have acquired my wisdom and stature. Follow my example, mastering as I have mastered, and you will become as I am, and all that I have will be yours." (Elder Dallin H. Oaks, The Challenge to Become, New Era Aug 2002)

In William Wordsworth's poetic words, we came to this earth 'trailing clouds of glory....from God who is our home' (Ode On Intimations of Immortality), leaving the memory of our greatness behind the veil, leaving all that we once held dear but determined to return ever triumphant and more glorious than when we left. Now in mortality we know very little of who we truly are because most of the time we do not seek to know our former selves. President Lorenzo Snow taught that we can come to know exactly who we are just as the Saviour did. He taught that "Jesus was a god before he came into the world and yet His knowledge was taken from Him. He did not know His former greatness, neither do we know what greatness we had attained to before we came here". He also taught that it was revealed to the Saviour who He was and 'for what purpose He was in the world. The glory and power He possessed before He came into the world was made known unto Him" (Conference Report, April 1901). We too can come to possess such knowledge and revelation for the Father can tell us all things through the power of His Spirit.

Consider Brigham Young's words on this subject : "I want to tell you, each and every one of you, that you are well acquainted with God our heavenly Father, or the great Elohim. You are all well acquainted with Him, for there is not a soul of you but what has lived in His house and dwelt with Him year after year; and yet you are seeking to become acquainted with Him, when the fact is, you have merely forgotten what you did know....There is not a person here today but what is a son or a daughter of that Being" (Journal of Discourses, 4:216). The fact is though that the veil is as thick or thin as we make it be. We are the ones that determine which way it will be for the Lord has promised: "If thou shalt ask, thou shalt receive revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge, that thou mayest know the mysteries and peaceable things - that which bringeth joy, that which bringeth life eternal." (D&C 42:61)

Now that we are here, some of us are struggling to remain great. President Harold B. Lee warned that 'there were many who were foreordained ...to a greater state than they have prepared themselves for here. Even though they might have been among the noble and great...they may fail of that calling here in mortality' (Ensign, January 1974, p 5) It would seem it all depends on whether we are converted. We might have a testimony and a conviction of the gospel but we might not be converted, meaning our basic nature is not changing to reflect that of a Christ like person. It is one thing to be convinced of the truthfulness of the gospel and another to hunger and thirst after righteousness and allow it to change our hearts and our nature. It is one thing to know the commandments and another to have them 'written in our hearts' (Mosiah 13:11). We are here not only to achieve but also to be true and even add to our greatness that we brought with us. The gospel of Jesus Christ is designed to help us become as gods, namely the Father and the Son in whom is all perfection. We are not here to merely make deposits into 'some heavenly account' by doing good deeds (Elder Dallin H. Oaks, The Challenge to Become, New Era Aug 2002). To be converted means to 'become'. With conversion comes the desire to live according to God's plan. It is then that all feelings of compulsion to choose the right flee and the path to eternal life becomes easier. Following King Benjamin's memorable sermon, his people ".....cried with one voice, saying: Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually." (Mosiah 5:2) This is true conversion. How much easier is it to live God's plan when you have no more disposition to do evil? The path to this conversion lies in yielding our hearts to God continually and being worthy of the Spirit which can sanctify us and change us. As we change and get closer to God, the veil thins and we become aligned with our true greatness. The aim is not to just return home but to return home being great. The Saviour of all mankind realised his greatness and has paved the way. May we walk in his footsteps for He is the light, the truth, the way.

Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea.
But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.
Twilight and the evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark:
For tho' from out of bourne of time and place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crossed the bar.

-  Lord Alfred Tennyson