Very Important Story of a BIRD and a MAN!

Did you know that the best shortcut you can ever take is to do what God says in His timing? Shortcuts outside the will of God invite compromise and create strife and confusion.

Believers need to understand that we are long-distance runners. We are marathoners. We are not in a sprint, and we do not need to look for shortcuts that open the door to compromise.

There is an old saying that is absolutely true: "If you keep your attention on learning the tricks of the trade, you will never learn the trade." Watch out for fads - even for spiritual fads - because the letters of the word fad stand for "for a day."

There is a story about a beautiful bird that was known for its great singing. It would sit at the top of a tree and make lovely melodies. One day a man walking through the woods passed by the tree and heard the beautiful bird singing. The bird saw the man, and that he was holding a box.

"What do you have in the box?" the bird asked the man.

The man replied that he had large, juicy earthworms in the box. "I will sell you a worm for one of your beautiful feathers," he offered.

The bird pulled out a feather and exchanged it for a worm. He reflected to himself, Why should I work hard to get worms when it is so easy to get them this way?

The bird and the man repeated this process over the course of many days, and soon the bird no longer had any more beautiful feathers with which to pay for worms. Furthermore, he could no longer fly, nor was he still pretty. He did not feel like singing beautiful songs, and he was very unhappy.

Like this foolish bird, we are always tempted to look for shortcuts, ways to get ahead and obtain the results that we desire. But as the foolish bird learned, there is a price for taking shortcuts.

Eventually we will learn that there is no shortcut to success. One of the hidden truths of life is that the path to the prize is always more valuable than the prize itself. Shortcuts rob us of those valuable lessons that we need to learn along the way. When you are presented with a shortcut - a way that is not of God - say no. Be persistent and stick to the path on which the Lord has placed you.