BBD 02.09.09 Learning to Fly
Posted by: wrather <wrather@...>
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02.09.09
Learning to Fly
Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel: "My way is hidden from the
Lord, and my just claim is passed over by my God"? Have you not known? Have
you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the
earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases
strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall
utterly fall, but those who wait on 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. - Isaiah 40:27-31.
When I was a boy a neighbor gave me a crow that was only a few weeks old.
The baby crow only knew how to walk around and so when I thought he was old
enough I decided that I would teach him how to fly. Using a ladder I climbed
onto the roof of our house with the crow and then dropped him off the roof.
He flapped his wings and landed softly. I climbed down and then climbed back
up with the crow and dropped him off again. Again he flapped his wings and
landed softly. I repeated the process several times until finally instead of
landing he continued to flap his wings and flew over to a tree. He now knew
how to fly.
The process for a mother eagle to teach her eaglets to fly is similar. With
a nest high on the side of a mountain, the eaglet is pushed out and the
natural response is for the wings to begin to move, to flap. Of course,
eagles avoid flapping those wings any more than necessary. Eagles soar
effortlessly on the currents of wind and that is the kind of flying that
Isaiah has in mind and that the Lord will enable us to do.
How does God teach His children how to fly? A few years after I was married
in a one year period I was laid off from three different jobs. After the
third time, with a lot of time on my hands, I began to read through the New
Testament for the first time and talk with God more than I ever had before.
It took a push from God for me to begin the learning process. With God's
help, I made a crucial decision that led to more right decisions in the
future. Ten years down the road I quit a job and borrowed $30,000 to start
an oilfield pipe inspection business. It took a month to build the
inspection unit, and then I began to try to find some jobs but after a month
more I still had not had any business. My financial situation was looking
very bleak, since even if I did succeed in finding some work it sometimes
would take three months before receiving payment. However, I knew what to
do. I had faced bad times, and difficult situations before. What did I do? I
prayed.and God did the rest.
Learning to trust God is difficult for most people. Getting dropped off of a
roof was probably scary for my crow. Getting nudged out of a nest on the
side of a mountain by your mother must be unbelievably frightening but how
else does an eagle learn how to fly? If you have been pushed out of your
nest, or dropped off of the roof, and you are in freefall - here's some
advice: start flapping your wings! Read, memorize, and meditate upon God's
Word. Pray like your life depends on it because it probably does. If you are
not in church, you need to be. If you are not serving God, you ought to be.
If you flap your wings hard enough you may eventually gain some altitude and
begin to soar. ".those who wait on 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."
Copyright © 2009. Ed Wrather. Permission is given for use of the devotionals
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