"A Word"
From Your Shepherd

Dr. Leland (Gus) O. Flaherty

Past "Words"

E-mail Pastor Gus

     I just finished reading the June 16 entry in the Our Daily Bread Devotional. The little article by Julie Ackerman Link was rather intriguing. She mentioned a poem by John Newton entitled, "The Kite and it's String." In this poem, a kite is feeling rather giddy and excited about how high it has been able to soar in the sky. It would like to soar even higher, but finds itself constrained (so it believes) by the string that is holding it near the ground. The kite believes that if it could just break free from that string, it could fly to unknown heights. Little did this kite realize that the very thing it wanted to break free from - the constraint of the string - was the very thing that provided the ability for it to fly so high. The pull and tension of the string were necessary for the kite to live up to its potential - to do what it was created to do. Eventually, the kite manages to break free, and to it's surprise, the total freedom the kite so desperately sought tuned out to lead to the kite's downfall. Instead of soaring to even greater heights, the kite came crashing to the ground.
    As I was reading this poem, it became clear to me that the string on the kite represented God's laws, rules, and guidelines for our lives. When we learn, understand, meditate, and put into practice the principles laid down in scripture we can truly reach the potential God has for us. Those guidelines provide the needed restraints to keep us on track. But if we were to try to break free from these guidelines, thinking that we could soar even higher if we were free from all of those restraints, we would soon discover that without them, our lives would come crashing down with disastrous results.
     John Newton sees the same connection. When we attempt to succeed at life on our own wisdom and strength, the results are not good! We need to continually rely on the "tension" of the string and the Ruling Hand that controls it.
     May we all continually submit to God's rules and desires for our lives. Only then can we reach our full potential for God and do what God has created each one of us to do! My advice to you for the month of July is "Go fly a Kite" and let the experience be a spiritual lesson upon which to pattern your life!

Blessings to you.

Pastor Gus Flaherty

The Kite and it's String

Once on a time a paper kite
Was mounted to a wondrous height,
Where, giddy with its elevation,
It thus expressed self-admiration:

"See how yon crowds of gazing people
Admire my flight above the steeple;
How would they wonder if they knew
All that a kite like me can do!

Were I but free, I'd take a flight,
And pierce the clouds beyond their sight,
But, ah! Like a poor pris'ner bound,
My string confines me near the ground;

I'd brave the eagle's towering wing,
Might I but fly without a string."
It tugged and pull, while thus it spoke,
To break the string-at last it broke.

Deprived at once of all its stay,
In vain it tried to soar away;
Unable its own weight to bear,
It fluttered downward through the air;

Unable its own course to guide,
The winds soon plunged it in the tide.
Ah! Foolish kite, thou hadst no wing,
How could'st thou fly without a string!

My heart replied, "O Lord, I see
How much this kite resembles me!
Forgetful that by thee I stand,
Impatient of thy ruling hand;
How oft I've wished to break the lines
Thy wisdom for my lot assigns?

How oft indulged a vain desire
For something more, or something higher?
And, but for grace and love divine,
A fall thus dreadful had been mine."

John Newton