Barnyard Duck

One day, Wally, one of the wild ducks in the formation, spotted
something on the ground that caught his eye. It was a barnyard
with a flock of tame ducks who lived on the farm. They were
waddling around on the ground, quacking merrily and eating corn
that was thrown on the ground for them every day. Wally liked
what he saw. "It sure would be nice to have some of that corn,"
he thought to himself. "And all this flying is very tiring. I'd
like to just waddle around for a while."
So after thinking it over a while, Wally left the formation of
wild ducks, made a sharp dive to the left, and headed for the
barnyard. He landed among the tame ducks, and began to waddle
around and quack merrily. He also started eating corn. The
formation of wild ducks continued their journey South, but Wally
didn't care. "I'll rejoin them when they come back North in a few
months, he said to himself.
Several months went by and sure enough, Wally looked up and
spotted the flock of wild ducks in formation, heading north. They
looked beautiful up there. And Wally was tired of the barnyard.
It was muddy and everywhere he waddled, nothing but duck doo.
"It's time to leave," said Wally.
So Wally flapped his wings furiously and tried to get airborne.
But he had gained some weight from all his corn-eating, and he
hadn't exercised his wings much either. He finally got off the
ground, but he was flying too low and slammed into the side of
the barn. He fell to the ground with a thud and said to himself,
"Oh, well, I'll just wait until they fly south in a few months.
Then I'll rejoin them and become a wild duck again."
But when the flock flew overhead once more, Wally again tried to
lift himself out of the barnyard. He simply didn't have the
strength. Every winter and every spring, he saw his wild duck
friends flying overhead, and they would call out to him. But his
attempts to leave were all in vain.
Eventually Wally no longer paid any attention to the wild ducks
flying overhead. He hardly even noticed them. He had, after all,
become a barnyard duck.
Sometimes we get tired of being the kind of ducks we should be --
followers of Jesus Christ. It's not always easy to be obedient to
God and to discipline ourselves to hang in there for the long
haul. When we are feeling that way, that's when Satan tempts us
to "fall out of formation" and to join the barnyard ducks -- the
worldly ways of life.
But look what happened to Wally. He thought he would just "check-
it-out" for awhile and then leave when he wanted to. But he
couldn't do it. Sin is like that. Sin is a trap, and it has a way
of changing us into people we don't even want to become.
Eventually we lose touch with who we really are -- the sons and
daughters of the Most High. We become barnyard ducks.
-- Author Unknown