Articles
Mad-eye Moody and a Squirrel
Mad-eye Moody and a Squirrel
When Harry was approaching the first task in Goblet of Fire, Alastor (Mad-eye) Moody told him to play to his strengths. Harry responded, “I don’t have any strengths.” Mad-eye retorted, “You’ve got strengths, if I say you’ve got strengths.”
Some years ago, the Springfield, Oregon public school system’s newsletter published a parable about a duck, a rabbit, a squirrel, and an eagle. Some educators got together and decided to organize a school. They adopted a curriculum of climbing, swimming, running and flying. To make it easier to administer the curriculum all the animals took the different classes. The duck was excellent in swimming; in fact, better than his instructor, but he only made passing grades in flying and was very poor in running. Since he was slow in running, he had to drop swimming and stay after school to practice running. Pretty soon his webbed feet were badly worn, so that he was only average in swimming. But average was quite acceptable, so nobody worried about that, except the duck.
The rabbit started at the top of his class in running but developed a nervous twitch in his leg muscles because of so much makeup work in swimming. The squirrel was excellent in climbing but he was constantly frustrated in flying class because his teacher made him start from the ground, instead of from the treetop. He developed cramps from overexertion so he only got a C+ in climbing and a D in running.
The eagle was a problem child. He was severely disciplined for being a nonconformist. In climbing classes, he beat all the others to the top of the tree but insisted on using his own way to get there. The moral of the story is simple: each creature had its own set of capabilities in which it naturally excelled, unless it was expected or forced to fill a role that did not suit their innate abilities. God has arranged the parts of the body, every one of them, to be what He wants them to be.
But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one
of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where
would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
1 Corinthians 12:18-20 (ESV)
We all have strengths, because God says we have strengths. I may be a one, two or five talent guy, but I at least have one. When I find my gift (skill, talent), I need to play to that strength. I need to practice it, hone it and use it. That does not mean I cannot develop other strengths, but I must not neglect my primary gift(s). The body needs each toe, finger, hand, arm and even so-called vestigial organ. It needs each rabbit, squirrel, duck and eagle. Excel at who God designed you to be and do not let the fact you are not as good at flying as the eagle destroy your confidence.
