Born To Fly

…those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they  shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not  be weary, they shall walk and not faint. 

Did you know that you were born to fly? That’s what our  scripture reading says:”…those who wait for the Lord shall  renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like  eagles…” Like eagles! Well, eagles don’t just flap their wings  they soar on the air currents that take them to heights of more  than 10,000 feet. Thanks, but no thanks! I don’t like flying! But  some not only like it; they do it for a living. Go figure!  

Tony, my husband, didn’t exactly get paid to fly; but he did  become a pilot. He learned to fly so many years ago he can  hardly remember the details, but I do know that because he  taught aerodynamics and theory of flight for many years, he  thought it was only right he should actually know how to fly a  plane. And so he paid for lessons, put in the required number of  hours of flight in order to qualify for his licence and then spent a few years enjoying flying a Cessna. Julia Smith had a totally  different flying experience. Julia completed the Canadian  Commercial Rotary Licence which qualified her to work as a  Commercial Helicopter pilot. At the time Julia was one of only  12 women in Canada working as a commercial helicopter pilot.  And finally, our peoples’ warden, Williette Gardner, was a  commercial airline pilot before her retirement. She flew the  biggies! (Do we have any other pilots in our congregation?) 

Well, most of us may not be pilots, but we are given wings:  wings to mount up like eagles! I discovered I had wings some  45 years ago when I preached my first sermon. However, I  didn’t exactly fly, I just fluttered. My priest had tapped me on  the shoulder and said, “It’s time you preached,” gave me a date  and left me to it. His words turned my legs to jelly and gave my  tummy the collywobbles, but preach I did, and, in spite of the  fact that I hyperventilated in the pulpit and nearly fainted, I  suppose I did ok because afterwards I was asked to preach at a  local renewal service. I chose Isaiah 40:31: those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with  wings like eagles. That verse changed my life! Until I preached  that sermon, I was very comfortable in my familiar nest, but the  very next day I was challenged to get out of the nest and to  learn to fly. It’s hard to leave the safety of the nest, not just for  baby eagles. Life seems safer, easier when we remain with  what’s familiar, comfortable, known, and up to that moment I  was happily settled in my nest. My friend, Ann, phoned and  said, “Carol, you should be ordained!” Ordained! You’ve got  to be kidding, said I. At the time, I still wasn’t convinced  women should be ordained, I didn’t have any university  degrees and I certainly didn’t have the finances nor academic  qualifications to go back to school. God thought differently.  And so, with fearful courage I fluttered out of my comfortable  nest and I began the adventure towards ordination. However, it  would take another forty plus years to do more than flutter and  to understand that we were not created to merely flutter; we  were meant to fly!

But it’s hard to fly when your wings are too weary, too ruffled  and ragged to remember and trust the goodness of God and  the power of His Word. That’s exactly where the Israelites are  when Isaiah speaks these words to them; they are tired and  discouraged. Hope has vanished and an “insidious doubt has  invaded them”. The Israelites are in Babylon living in exile.  They are displaced, demoralized, and surrounded by a foreign  culture. Everything they hold dear has been lost and so they  are gripped by a despair that makes God feel distant, and  disinterested in their struggles. Surely we can empathize with  these Israelites. We all know what it is to feel overwhelmed by  life, by its sorrows and disappointments and to feel God has  abandoned us.  

But into their darkness, and into ours, comes the light of God’s  prophetic word: “Lift up your eyes on high and see…” (vs.26)  says the Lord. See! “See what I have created.” When the  Israelites wail that God’s ways are hidden from them, he  reminds them that He is the everlasting God who never faints nor grows weary. He knows their every need, their every  concern, their every complaint. Yes, some will grow weary and  falter, but those who “wait for the Lord shall renew their  strength.”  

In Hebrew, waiting (qavah) means much more than simply  passing time; it implies a hopeful, confident expectation in God.  Such waiting can only happen when we trust that God is God.  So often the God in whom we believe is much too small. We  forget or perhaps have never truly understood that “The Lord is  the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He  does not faint or grow weary, his understanding is  unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens  the powerless.” (Isa.40:28b-29) The Israelites had forgotten  their story, the story of the God who once before had brought  them out of slavery, who had provided food, water and a  home. If he had done it before, He could do it again. 

Sometimes, when my faith starts to wobble, and it does, I  remember what God has done in the past: a tap on the  shoulder, a phone call, a dream that speaks deeply to my soul  or a vocation that I could never have dreamed possible. I am  not only grateful, I am reassured. When I feel as if I’m going to  break, I stop and face Jesus and tell him how it’s all too much  and I know he knows and I am grateful. I’m not soaring yet, in  fact, I’m still just fluttering. Will I ever be able to ‘mount up  with wings like eagles? Indeed, the question is: is such flight  possible for you and me? Isaiah responds, “Yes, it is!” “The  only requirement is that we trust in the Lord, believing that his  promises are true, and that he can do, and will do for us what  we cannot do for ourselves.” (Webb, Barry G. Commentary on  Isaiah, pg.12) When Tony, Julia and Williette learned to fly, they needed an instructor, a plane and enough money for those  lessons. Our instructor is the Holy Spirit, our vehicle is faith and  our resources are praise, prayer and the Word of God. 

How vital it is that we come to trust in the Word of God.  “Reliance on the word of God is not fatalistic or superstitious.  It is not trust in something impersonal like the stars or a good luck charm. It is trust in a person who is committed to us and  has all the resources necessary to care for us….God’s word has  the same character as God himself. It is as unchanging and  reliable as the God who speak it.” (Webb, pg.163) Writes Isaiah***, “The  grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will  stand forever.”*** (Isa.40:7) God is faithful to his word. God says  through Isaiah. (55:10 – 11) 

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,  and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;  it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Paul writes to Timothy: God has breathed life into all  Scripture. It is useful for teaching us what is true. It is useful  for correcting our mistakes. It is useful for making our lives  whole again. It is useful for training us to do what is right. By  using Scripture, the servant of God can be completely  prepared to do every good thing. (2 Timothy 3: 16-17 NIV) 

God’s very life is in all scripture, says Paul and so by reading it  and trusting what we read to be true for us, “the servant of  God can be completely prepared to do every good thing.” Yes,  we are meant to fly: to fly from breakdown to break through.  Fly from hurt to healing. Fly from brokenness to wholeness.  

Yes, when the word of God is in us, we can fly. In fact, we were  born to fly!