When You Need Them

One of the great Old Testament readings is from Second Isaiah (that is chapter 40-55 of Isaiah) is the passage at the end of Chapter 40. "Do you now know, have you not heard? The Lord, the everlasting God, creator of the wide world, grows neither weary nor faint; no man can fathom his understanding. God gives vigour to the weary, new strength to the exhausted. Young men may grow weary and faint, even in their prim they may stumble and fall; but those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength, they will grow wings like eagles; they will run and not be weary, they will walk and not faint."

These promises were made by the prophet to the children of Israel when the people of God were in captivity in Babylon. These promises were given to a people who were in great disappointment and discouragement. These promises were Isaiah's version of Jimmy Valvano's "Never give up." Do not give up because those who wait upon the providence of God find that they will discover the energy and ability to fly, to run, and to walk. Those are three very different gifts. Wings, running, or walking and not collapsing are very different kinds of activities or conditions.

Those who wait upon the Lord are the ones to whom these gifts are given. Do some people get the wings and others just enough to walk on? Are these gifts to the community of those who wait and to that community these gifts are given to different members? Or do all of us get wings and get to soar? Do all of us get the power to run for a long time? Do all of us get the gift of endurance without fainting? Do those gifts reflect a chronological reality? The young get the gifts to fly, the middle aged get the gift of running without weariness, and the aged get the gift of just walking and not fainting? But nevertheless, there is an assurance to all of us in these anxious times that God is the one who keeps creation and gives to all of us the power to go on, to keep going, to survive. There are promises of unending prosperity or success, but like Donna Summers "we will survive." We may fly, run or walk, but we will go on by the creative power of God.