When God Removes Comfort, He Is Revealing Capacity by Sondra Louise

When a baby eagle is ready to leave the nest, the mother eagle begins to remove the very things that once made the nest comfortable.

What once protected the eaglet now becomes uncomfortable. What once served as a place of safety begins to feel restless, unfamiliar, and even disruptive. But the mother eagle is not being cruel. She is being purposeful.

She knows something the eaglet does not yet fully understand:

There is flight inside of it.

As the eaglet begins to stretch and flap its wings, it is drawn toward the edge of the nest. Something inside of it knows it was created to fly. It has watched its parents soar. It has seen what wings are supposed to do. Yet, when the moment comes to leave what is familiar, fear grips the edge of comfort.

The eaglet may hesitate.

It may cling.

It may resist.

But the parent eagle knows the eaglet has already been equipped for what it is afraid to attempt. So, with a loving nudge, the eaglet is pushed beyond the place that can no longer contain its purpose.

Because wings do not gain strength by staying folded.

They gain strength through movement.

They develop through resistance.

They become useful through the very process that feels uncertain.

At first, the eaglet may flap awkwardly. It may struggle to find its rhythm. It may feel as though it is falling instead of flying. But the parent eagle watches closely. And just before danger overtakes it, the eagle swoops beneath the eaglet, catches it, carries it back, and allows the process to begin again.

This continues until the eaglet discovers what was inside of it all along.

Could it be that God does the same with us?

Are you in an uncomfortable place right now?

Has something that once felt safe, functional, and familiar suddenly begun to feel restrictive, painful, or even like betrayal?

Could it be that the Heavenly Father is removing the elements that served you in the infant stages of your development because they can no longer support the weight of where He is taking you?

Sometimes discomfort is not punishment.

Sometimes it is preparation.

Sometimes God allows the nest to become uncomfortable because He knows we would never leave it otherwise. We would stay where we were nurtured, even after we have outgrown it. We would cling to what once helped us survive, even when it can no longer help us soar.

Growth is painful. That is why we call them “growing pains.” But growth is also necessary. There is a pain that comes with change, but there is also a pain that comes from staying too long in a place God has already called us out of. And until the latter becomes greater, we'll remain in stagnation, where growth is stunted and capacity is never realized.

The same wind that terrifies the eaglet is the wind that will eventually cause it to soar.

And the same uncertainty that is causing you to question, doubt, and fear what is ahead may be the very thing God uses to lift you into places you have never known.

Maybe you were never meant to keep flapping against the wind.

Maybe you were meant to learn how to let it carry you.

So embrace the discomfort.

Release what no longer serves your purpose.

Trust the Father who sees what He placed inside of you before you ever saw it in yourself.

You are not falling apart.

You are being developed.

You are not being abandoned.

You are being prepared.

You have wings.

Now it is time to believe you can fly, only to realize, you were created to SOAR!.

"Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it." - Hebrews 12:11