From Bishop Joe Aldred, of Churches Together in England
The 19th Century biologist Professor Richard Owen remarked, that ?there is no greater anomaly in nature than a bird that cannot fly?.
The norm is to fly, but some birds flap their wings along the surface of the water, some take flight only to escape danger, and some have become virtually wingless. In the case of the ostrich, unable to fly from danger, it has developed the ability to kick away its attackers.
These and other anomalous bird behaviours are said to be caused by disuse. For as I learned in Sunday School many years ago, God has given us talents, and ?if we don?t use them ? we may well lose them.
May-be it?s because it chimes so much with our innate aspirational instincts, why American singer-songwriter R Kelly?s ?I believe I can fly? has become so popular around the world. Human beings seem to know that everyone is born with the ability to fly, proverbially, based on their God-given gifts and talents.
But what we know also, is that for a range of reasons, some self-inflicted, others externally imposed, many never realise their full potential.
This week, August 17 to be specific, marks the birthday in 1887 of one of the greats in Pan-African history, the mercurial Marcus Garvey.
A Christian, Garvey recognised the lasting effects of an ungodly slave movement that dehumanised African people. He concluded that the road to rediscovery of selfhood starts with self-love. For Garvey, if the descendants of the enslaved were to rediscover their ability to fly, they needed to embrace the self that had experienced rejection and caused some of their wings to lapse into disuse.
But the process of learning how to fly again after four-hundred years of disuse is a long and drawn out affair, which may not be realised fully in a life time. Patience, determination and faith are required, so that in the words of Isaiah the Old Testament prophet, in time ?those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, shall mount up with wings like eagles, run and not be weary, walk and not faint?.
Such faith is always accompanied by action that brings about change. So, together we work towards a time when a human being born anywhere in our world, who does not achieve their full potential, is as anomalous as a bird that cannot fly.