The Duck That Might Have Been

Arthur Burt is a 90+ year old minister living in Wales. I read his autobiography, Around the World in 88 Years, a couple of years ago---one of the best books about a life lived by faith that I've ever read. Arthur has another book out titled Cock-A-Doodle-Doo. This book has been described as "light-hearted, but gut-wrenching..." It is a simply written book with Emma the Hen telling her tales but passing along foundational and growth-inspiring truths and thoughts at the same time. I would like to pass along one of them now:

I think my life as a tame old duck,
Dibbling 'round in the farmyard muck,
Fat and lazy with useless wings.
But sometimes when the northwind sings,
Oh...and the wild ducks hurtle overhead,
Something stirs that was lost and dead.
And he cocks a wary and puzzled eye,
Makes a feeble attempt to fly.
He's fairly content with the state he's in.
But he's not the duck he might have been.

This short simple poem is about a duck in the farmyard, who, for all intents and purposes, lives his life like a chicken. Oh, he has the wings to fly---but he doesn't use them. Now, he doesn't have a bad life---he's taken care of and fairly content with his life. But, every now and then, he looks up and sees other ducks on wing, using their wings for that which they were intended and going places.

The phrase "might have been" is almost haunting. Many of us have probably, at some point, looked back in our lives and wondered what might have been if certain circumstances had been different or if we had reacted differently to those circumstances. There may have been a point when we turned left instead of right or shouldn't have turned at all. However, with God, mistakes, misses and misfires are all recoverable---at any point in life. In other words, God can right our ship when it is blown off course, when it lists to one side, founders, or even shipwrecks. This is the merciful grace and power of God in our lives at work if we allow it. But, woe unto the ship that never sets sail...who never leaves the harbor...who never experiences the balmy, blue, breezy billows, never encounters the headwinds of stormy seas and never sets out for the purpose and destination it was intended.

I cannot think many things worse than to one day, at the end of my life, to look back and say,'I wonder what might have been'... what I might have been or had done if I had only allowed myself to chart my course by faith in the greatest navigator of life in the universe.
I want to fulfill my mission. I want to run the race. I want to finish the course. I want one day to hear "well done good and faithful servant."
Yep, I want to be a duck that flies.

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