The Wings of Eagles

"Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; 

they will mount up with wings like eagles, they

will run and not get tired, 

they will walk and not become weary."

Isaiah 40:31

I was having a really rough day today. It's the end of the semester, finals week is coming up, all my last projects are due and I'm moving out in a matter of days. I've been on the go for months, and I really can't remember the last time I had a day off and just did nothing. So when all the little things seemed to be going wrong today, I was pushed over the edge. And at times like these I usually just want to be alone or with one close friend, and just cry.

So on my way home as I passed Lake Waconia (just like I do everyday), I decided to stop at the landing and just go sit by the water. I knew it was windy, I knew it was cold. I didn't have a coat, and I didn't have anywhere to sit because the docks were all wet from the waves splashing on them. 

But as I sat and listened to the crashing of the waves on the shore, as I watched the parasailers fly across the lake, and as I breathed in the musty lake air, I reflected on what I was telling myself earlier: I just want to be home. Then I realize, this is home. God's Creation is my home, and He has never left me.

God's Platform to Speak

I'm sitting there thinking about how much this reflects the storms of life, and how much this is a reflection of the hard times that come into our lives, like today in mine. And I look and all of a sudden what seems like out of no where there is this big, beautiful bald eagle that stretchs out his wings and flys over me. But he doesn't fly like a normal bird. He flaps his wings hard and he moves sideways, compensating for the wind that's rushing under his wings. He knows which way he needs to go, and he knows the wind, and when things come in the way of that, when storms of life come in the way of that, he knows how to compensate. God created him that way. 

This eagle is merely a bird. 

We are God's greatest Creation, and we also have the ability to compensate. 

I title this The Wings of Eagles, because we can learn a lot from the eagle.

Isaiah 40:31 tells us that we must wait on the Lord, and when we do we will gain a new strength, not a hand-me-down, or a previously owned, or a shined up version of the old strength, but a NEW strength. It says we will "mount up with wings like eagles". With this new strength we will have the ability to fly sideways, to push through the hard times, and to stay on the path we're heading, the path God desires us to be on.

I want to know what it means to find joy in the midst of hardships, to find the straight and narrow in the midst of the curvy and jagged. 

Proverbs 3:6 

"In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight". 

In all your ways compensate with Him, and he will make that path straight, even if you're going sideways to get there.

"Do you not know? Have you not heard? 

The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth 

does not become weary or tired. 

His understanding is inscrutable. 

He gives strength to the weary, 

and to him who lacks might He increases power"

Isaiah 40: 28-29

Basking in His Creation and in His Strength

Jenna's Journal