Okay. I’ll admit it. Where we live is rural. Some friends say we live in the wilderness. Sometimes it feels like that.
And yes we have wild turkey’s wandering around here from time to time. One bunch — herd, flock — whatever you want to call them, was wandering through the property the other day. Doing the wandering turkey thing. Slowly plodding along like they do all day, every day. Making little gurgling noises. Pecking here and there at the ground for tasty morsels of something.
That’s what life is usually like for them. That’s their life routine. During the day. At night they sort of fly up into some fairly low branches of a convenient tree to perch for the night while they sleep. And keep away from predators.
The other day, though, we saw the turkeys do something we had never seen before. They gave up their routine 
jobs. They stopped plodding. And they flew. High. They were flying 80 or 90 feet (25 or more meters) high, at tree top level. Yes that’s right turkeys. A dozen of them who usually didn’t do anything so exciting. Each probably weighed about 35 pounds (16kg). And they landed in the tops of trees.
So what happened? Did they trade in their routine jobs for something more exciting? More uplifting? Not exactly. It was a momentary break in the routine for them. An hour later they were back at ground level, doing the normal turkey thing. Plodding and pecking and making little noises.
So what caused the change in activity?
Motivation.
Compelling, and inspiring motivation.
They were motivated – all at the same time – to do something totally different. Motivated to use some talents they hadn’t used for awhile. I’d like to think it was a little exciting for them.
And what was the motivation?
The neighbor’s dog. She gave them a motivational speech, and they didn’t wait for her to finish. They were immediately inspired to do something different. Fly. High. And get a different perspective on their lives from the high branches of trees.
We’re kind of like that, aren’t we? Some of us. Plodding through each day. Pecking away at our routines of work. Making little sounds to each other as we move through the day. And the next day is the same.
What kind of motivation do you suppose it would take to get us off the ground? To get us to change our routine? To do something new? Exciting? Different? To fly a little higher? To get a fresh new perspective on our lives and work?
Who knows. Maybe God has something new for you (and me) in 2010. Maybe we have some talents or abilities we haven’t used very much that God wants us to use.
Are you ready to be motivated to fly higher? To do something new and fresh and effective? Different?
Listen for the motivation.
Not a dog barking.
Listen for God speaking, saying “I’ve got something I want you to do.”
And then start flying…..
Al Stewart
