Eagles Wings

Wednesday, December 16, 2020

Isaiah 40:28-31
Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;
but 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.

Dear Friends,

Right outside of our bathroom door in the hallway was a framed embroidered wall hanging with the words “Do you love life? Then why waste time, for that is what life is made of” stitched into the white linen and surrounded by flowers. This guilt-ridden saying greeted me every time I left the bathroom after reading Nancy Drew novels on the toilet until my legs went numb instead of doing my schoolwork. It still plagues me today, alongside all the language we Westerners adopted around “busy.” “How was your day?” we ask. “Busy,” we say. 

I went to a Christian high school that was known more for our mascot and school verse than we were for our name. The Bereans were a Greek people who show up in Acts 17 where they listened to Paul’s teaching about Christ and then dutifully questioned everything. Invitation and permission to doubt, question, or debate biblical concepts at my Christian high school was frowned upon, regardless of our name. However, the Eagle mascot alongside Isaiah 40:31 was championed and highlighted in predictable ways. We were a school of the strong and mighty who would never give up regardless of adversity, especially on the football field where we hoped to soar. 

This verse has been hijacked by a “busy” culture and a can-do attitude where there’s no rest for the weary because God will give you strength to rise up on wings like eagles. There’s no room for crying or stopping or resting because all of these behaviors are signs of weakness, and God makes us strong, dammit, so just keep working harder.

We’ve perverted this verse by forming it into a mascot of strength, power, and American nationalism where we are overcomers uninhibited by suffering or weakness. This verse has long told me what to do, but God is always inviting me to simply be. My friends, this verse has little to do with standing out as the strongest and most popular and has everything to do with who God actually sees. God isn’t looking for those on eagles wings. God’s looking for those who could never hop on the wings to begin with. God’s looking for those who are suffering, weary, desperate, exhausted, and totally undone. God is looking for teenagers from backwater towns, B-team type folks, people with thorns in their sides and God says, “Yes. This I can work with.”

God isn’t looking for the best and brightest. God seems to seek out the weary and weak, the tired and stumbling, the questioners and wonderers who’s hope beyond hope still seems to be in the Lord. While the powerful world insists on doing, Advent invites us to be. 

Do you not know? Have you not heard? God never grows weary, and that truth is enough to bring me strength for today. So may you sit, rest, waste time, and simply be in the truth of God’s love for you today. And may your hope be in the Lord who promises to renew your strength. 

With (love),
Bethany