SECOND CHANCES

Denzel Washington's ipod

I love it when unrelated activities link together. This happened yesterday while viewing "The Book of Eli" movie. During one of the scenes these song lyrics caught my attention. 

"I can think of younger days, when living for my life was everything a man could want to do. I could never see tomorrow, but I was never told about the sorrow.

And how can you mend a broken heart? How can you stop the rain from falling down? How can you stop the sun from shining? What makes the world go round? 

How can you mend a broken man? How can a loser ever win? Please help me mend my broken heart and let me live again"

Sounds pretty depressing. Anyway, earlier in the week I had been reading a Chuck Swindoll book where he quoted a 19th century proverb which goes like this, "The Bird With The Broken Pinion Never Soars As High Again". The meaning of the proverb was, "once you have failed, you will never, ever attain the heights you did before". 

Swindoll goes on to write that the only problem with the proverb is that it isn't true; it's never been true. He did a study on the proverb and found out it was written over one hundred years ago by a man named Hezekiah Butterworth. (I like that name!) His words sound like wisdom, until you turn to the Scriptures for clear examples that dispute the proverb. 

Abraham was a liar, but in spite of broken pinions he soared higher than anyone had ever been before. Rahab was a prostitute, yet God selected her as his choice instrument to preserve the lives of two servants, and she was also in the Bible Hall of Fame. Jacob, David, Jonah; the list goes on and on. Chuck summarizes with good news, "The bottom line is, God seems to prefer using people with broken pinions".

I thought about the "Broken Pinion" proverb when Blue's wing got caught in fish line at Pinchot Park last year. Since then, he has flown higher than ever and even made news at our local NBC television station. 

Blue Heron at Pinchot Park 2014 (click on pic to see fish hook)

Hezekiah Butterworth, you are mistaken!