They train in the river to prepare for the sky

Mark DeLap
Posted 2/2/21

This past few months,

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They train in the river to prepare for the sky

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This past few months, I have watched as one of our rivers in Platte County was literally flooded with small and separate troops of geese training for their upcoming migration. As I witnessed last year from a different part of the country, geese learn formation, calls from the leaders, spacing and stamina from swimming “upstream” in the river. I watched for hours as they would learn how to rotate to bring a different goose to the front while never losing their spacing in the water… staying perfect in the “V.” Sometimes heads held upright, sometimes the simulation of flight with their heads down as if they were shearing the wind.

It was quite noisy as they were all training in small groups and some were swimming, some were resting, some were in transition. They trained in that river for hours and the next day, the troops go to a different part of the river to experience a different scene, a new adversity – never letting themselves become complacent.

The hours of discipline in that never-ending thrust of the river flowing swiftly beneath the water level is amazing. They are building their stamina for the upcoming journey. I thought to myself how dedicated they are to survival. Everything in their life is geared for those yearly journeys.  

I imagined myself swimming upstream for 30 minutes and got tired just from the thought. These geese train in that torrent every day. As I was watching them, I felt a special touch on my heart with a profound, but simple thought: “They train in the adversity of the stream so that they can withstand the adversity of the journey.” 

We have our trials each and every day and don’t realize that our training IS part of the journey. With each hour in our stream of adversity – we are building stamina for our journey and our calling.

I think we would do good to take lessons from geese as we see them forming and training to go south.  (No... it's not a sign to follow them to a warmer climate!!!)  As each goose flaps its wings, it creates an uplift for the bird who follows.  By flying in a V formation, the whole flock increases the flying range by 71% over one bird flying alone.

 People who share a common direction and a sense of community get where they're going more easily and more quickly because they are traveling on each other’s thrust.
 Whenever a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and the resistance of trying to fly alone and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front.
 If we have as much sense as a goose, we›ll stay in formation with those ahead and we›ll be willing to accept their help.  We'll also be willing to help those following behind. The geese in formation honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.  We need to make sure our honking from behind is for encouragement and not for some other reason.