Soaring

A brief flirtation with Pilates taught me that before I bend or stretch or twist or turn, I need to strengthen my core. I found the concept pretty hard as it is basically an invisible action which can only be described. I can’t see what’s going on. I never quite knew if I was doing it right or not. 

‘Those that wait on – hope in – the Lord will renew their strength.’ The recipe for strengthening my spiritual core can be equally as hard to follow. How long do I wait? How do I wait? How do I keep my hope up? I can’t see what’s going on.

Linger longer is really my mantra. I am sorely tempted to pop up and get on with my day if I don’t immediately ‘get’ something I think is from God in my prayer or Bible reading time. 

Lingered longer this morning, thinking of yesterday’s blog and the visual aid of water-based exercise done on floating mats. It occurred to me that if I were to be doing such exercises, I would imagine that if/when my neighbouring exerciser plunged off her mat into the pool, the waves would chop and sway and threaten to pitch me into the water as well. 

When someone near me is struggling to keep afloat and occasionally falls in, I need to be extra vigilant in maintaining my core spirituality strength. Not just to keep my own wings dry, but also to inspire others that in God, everything is possible.

He never lets go. As we trust in him, we will soar on wings like eagles. Not just cling on but soar. Not like sparrows but like eagles.

I have a funny feeling that although I need to make an effort, it is God who is doing all the work.

Soaring

Little foxes may be cute – I’m not sure as I’ve not seen any up close. But most baby animals have some cuteness about them. They are no doubt distracting – when I allow them into the garden of my relationship with Jesus they can draw my attention away from him. They may be annoyances like house repairs needing attention or weeding needing done. They may ratchet up when it could be confusion over billing or internet or banking fraud. Or family or friend anxieties.

The little foxes transform into marauding wolves when they become vicious and violent: Promenade des Anglaises in Nice or Istanbul Airport or Brussels Airport. Or when political change and upheaval dominate every news bulletin and always are delivered in tones of dark despair and doom. 

How do I alter my perspective and maintain my relationship with Jesus? How do I hang on to the joy of the Lord and let his light shine out in these dark days? 

Isaiah wrote thousands of years ago that those who wait on the Lord will mount up on wings like eagles. Eagles have vision. They can see the whole picture – or at least more of it than I can at ground level. So, I need discipline and steely-mindedness to resist the distractions of the foxes and the wolves. They should get some of my prayer time, but not all of it. As I wait upon the Lord, however hard that is in the midst of everything that is going on, my prayers will gain accuracy and effectiveness. 

With God’s help,  I will wait on the Lord, and soar like an eagle.

National Parks and Soaring Eagles

A few years ago, Don and I drove from Colorado to California through Utah and Arizona. The terrain either side of the road is extraordinary. The dry scrubland is punctuated with exclamation points of dramatic stone shapes – we skirted the famous Zion, Bryce and Canyonlands national parks so were enjoying their leftover magnificence.

We stopped frequently, at every lay-by, to take pictures and read the tourist trail descriptions of what we were seeing. At one particular spot, we read that Butch Cassidy’s hideout with his Hole in the Wall gang was nearby. At that same place, another information board told of the Mormons following this ‘trail’ as the discrimination against them intensified in the east. 

We wondered how their wagons could have possibly traversed the landscape we were seeing. It was pockmarked with depressions, littered with stones and hillocks and scrub bushes and cacti. Every foot forward must have been deliberate and required some preparation.

There must have been scouts and trail blazers looking ahead and trying to predict the easiest route for the clumsy wagons and weakened pioneers to take. Sometimes that may have been the shortest route but no doubt there were times when the easiest route involved going in a round-about way. Not every mountain and river would have been passable, even with care.

Prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God, Isaiah wrote thousands of years ago. 

I sense that we have come through a wilderness these last months – me trailblazing as much as possible and then moving forward. I have often felt weak and daunted by the mountains before me. But with God’s help, we have arrived at an oasis now.

I say an oasis because we are not out of the desert yet. God has been speaking to me about the eagle as well as the wilderness. Isaiah 40 ends on the wonderful verses that those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles.

I hope in the Lord and therefore my strength will be renewed. As I soar like an eagle, the obstructions of mountains and cacti and ditches and scrub bushes blend: none looks insurmountable; all look fairly innocuous even. From a height, I can discern a way forward better than I can when obstructions loom above me. 

Jesus invites us to sit with him and enjoy times of refreshment. I anticipate a thirst-quenching draught of his Holy Spirit. I am excited to linger with him and be renewed. Even in the on-going busyness of life, such refreshment and renewal can come. I am so grateful, as I sink into his presence.

Soaring

I'm thinking a lot about eagles today. I don't think I've ever seen one of these majestic birds, except perhaps at a wild animal park somewhere.

I've been thinking about how they soar above the storm clouds to avoid being pummelled by the rain. Soar. I love that word. It conveys power, height, and a certain effortlessness. Riding the thermals. Rising on the waves of air. It communicates a certain exuberance, a joy in rising above the storms and  maybe even basking in the sunlight which shines beyond the clouds. An affinity with being somewhere over the rainbow.

Eagles have several traits which lend themselves as metaphors for a healthy relationship with God. But today, this is my focus. I am still set aside, hunkered down by a roaring fire and sneezing and coughing and sniffing. It's amazing that it has taken over two weeks of ill health for me to finally give in, to finally stop trying to get on with my to do list. Why? What is wrong with me?

Today I read in the book of Isaiah, chapter 40, those famous words...those who wait on, who trust in, The Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not faint.

I may look like I am slumped by a roaring fire. But in fact, I am soaring on wings like eagles, as I wait on The Lord.

Soaring

Unresolved responsibilities were preying on my mind, and decisions eluded me. I walked along the road, gazing up at the sky, where I noticed a buzzard or other such bird of prey circling. Rising on the thermals, dropping at heart-stopping speed, and rising once again. Tipping wings first one way, then the next, rising, rising.

Then I noticed the second, and the third, and finally a fourth buzzard. My own anxieties receded as I watched, transfixed, as these four birds rose to dizzying heights with scarcely a flap of wing. 

It looked amazing. It looked fun. Imagine the perspective they had on all that lay beneath. I thought of the legendary vision of such birds of prey – eagle-eyed we say, if someone has the ability to see minute movement from a fantastic distance.

Into my mind popped the wonderful promise in Isaiah 40: “ ...those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

Mentally I handed my worries to the Lord, put my hope in him, and felt myself rising, without the desperate flapping which had so disturbed my thoughts before. 

We don’t have to flap. We can soar on wings like eagles. Or buzzards, here in the northeast.