Southside Church of Christ
800 Elmira Avenue
Durham, NC 27707
info@sside.org | www.sside.org
919.688.3535 STAFF
Orlander R. Thomas Senior Minister
William A. Stephens
Minister Emeritus
D’Andrea Fanning
Director of Ministry Operations & Non-Profit
Candice P. Blount
Church Administrator
Quentella Williams
Executive Assistant
DEACONS
John Alcox
Anthony Green, Sr.
Arthur Hackney
John Mathis
Chester Mayfield, Jr.
Roger McDougal
Joe Williams
Keith Wright
W E E K L Y W O R D Go On, Spread Those Wings and Fly
By RICKI FULLERThere are a few renditions of the fable which details how an eagle lived among chickens It has been theorized that because the eagle was on a farm with chickens day-in-and-dayout, the eagle grew to believe he was a chicken (plus, the farmer treated the eagle as though it was a chicken) Hence, the eagle mimicked every action he saw the chickens perform
Thus, when a man visited the farm and saw the eagle amongst the chickens, he tried to impress upon the eagle what he truly was, and what was his life’s designed purpose. So, upon lifting up and urging the eagle to fly, on a couple of occasions the eagle looked around (up at the sky and down to ground in the chicken coop) and made the choice to plop back down into his familiar domicile
In a sense, one could say that because of his life circumstances, the eagle was ‘boxed in’ because it was the only environment he knew how to navigate After all, the eagle had nothing else to compare his life and activities to except that of being a chicken (which both the other chickens and the famer convinced him he was a chicken) So, that was his comfortable box, even though it’s assumed that on some level that he had recognized he was different in size, body build, and claw structure than were the other chickens And, it could be surmised that the eagle was afraid to try flying for fear of being unsuccessful or of being laughed at
Well, the visitor went back to the farm one last time and summoned the farmer and the eagle to go with him to a mountain away from the farm, the chickens, the fences, etcetera. Once they all reached the “foot of a high mountain” the visitor “held the eagle on his arm and pointed high into the sky.” The visitor then spoke saying, “Eagle, thou art an Eagle!
Thou dost belong to the sky and not to the earth Stretch forth thy wings and fly ” At that time “the eagle stared skyward into the bright sun, straightened his large body, and stretched his massive wings His wings moved, slowly at first, then surely and powerfully With the mighty screech of an eagle, he flew ”
Whether or not the eagle was afraid to be different from his chicken family, or whether or not the eagle was boxed in, the important point here is that he had not been introduced to his identity nor to his purpose
The visitor’s persistence in pointing the eagle to his destiny reminds me of one of our primary purposes as Christians We are here to Love GOD, ourselves and others We can, especially, meet people where they are so as to point them to their highest calling in Christ! Once in Christ they get to fly on His wings/pinions/precepts/commands until they fearlessly spread their wings fly purposefully pointing/ushering others to Christ
Courageously spread your wings so others see and spread theirs also to GOD’s glory! It combats fear!
“So God created mankind in his own image”
**4TH
DOROTHY HOLMAN
**5TH
JOEL BISHOP
DOCK CULVER
IRENE JACKSON
CHESTER MAYFIELD JR
**6TH
JACQUELINE MAYO
**7TH
ALVIN HESTER
LETEALIA OLIVER
**10TH
NETTIE ALLEN
LAJEANIA DIXON
KANYA STILES
**12TH
KRISTI DAVIS
ARTURO WATSON
QUENTELLA WILLIAMS
**13TH
CHRISTOPHER BURGESS
SHERMAN CARTER
ISAAC CASTRO
BRIAN SUMMERS
**14TH
CAITLIN LEGGETT
JYNELLE BEASLEY
JASPER GORHAM
22ND
YVETTE HOLDER
JAMIR LEE
JAMISON SPEED
23RD
QUENTIN GERMAIN
MALEIKA TWITTY
24TH
ALEXIS HOLLAND
BOBBY SINGLETON
27TH
MARCUS HAWLEY
CANDICE BLOUNT
31ST EVON PALMER
LORRAINE WILLIAMS
P E T I T I O N S WEEKLY
May 5, 2024
N N O U N C E M E N T S
Church of Christ
