Taking flight

Taking flight is not always easy.  Sometimes there is a stiff sea breeze that turns you, or gusts that push against you.  Sometimes you have too much drag and not enough lift due to the burdens you carry.  So the question I have been asking myself lately is, given my burdens, how do I soar as Christ would have me to do-- with wingsa like eagles, without growing faint or weary? After all, is says in Isaiah 40:31:

...but they 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.

But how am I to accomplish this?  As I ruminate on my own failures to fly, and come to grips with the fact that I am weary and tired, I keep ending up with the same thought.  I soar because He carries me (Exodus 19:4).  He tells me not to grow weary (Gal. 6:9; 2 Thess. 3:13) because He did not grow weary:

³ Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. ⁴ In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. ⁵ And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
    nor be weary when reproved by him.
⁶ For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
    and chastises every son whom he receives.”

⁷ It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? ⁸ If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. ⁹ Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? ¹⁰ For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. ¹¹ For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

~Hebrews 12:3-11

I was recently reminded as I taught my local worldviews class that suffering is sometimes a calling we have from God-- a holy vocation.  We all have those seasons of suffering, all with different details and to differing degrees, but all "painful rather than pleasant".  But if this is a holy calling, and something that will produce the fruit of holiness in me, I had better get about taking off.  It does not matter how heavy my wings feel, nor if I can only fly half as far today as I did last year.  I need to strive to go forward, and trust God to redeem my feeble efforts.

¹² Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, ¹³ and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. ¹⁴ Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
~Hebrews 12:12-13

I am praying that the Lord will stregthen my drooping hands and weak knees despite how they feel, or how I feel about it, and make me to fly with eagles' wings today. I am waiting expectantly for Him to do so.  May He be gracious to do the same for you, Gentle Reader.