Endurance Over Hype: God Gives Us Wings

Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those 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. - Isaiah 40:30-31 (New Revised Standard Version)

I have been watching a lot of videos lately of people doing dangerous sports and activities that require a dedicated execution of skill, training, and strength. Most such videos are from Red Bull. While I rarely see more than a glimpse of the work and planning that goes into these feats—and I don’t typically see any of these athletes drinking a Red Bull—I can’t help but remember the slogan each time my heart swells in joy and pride at the accomplishments of these strangers and say to myself "Red Bull gives you wings" (a trademarked slogan).

I know this is symbolism and good marketing just as I find the often positive words of scripture better express the sentiments of how God is greater than all of us. In fact, considering who God is beyond the breathing and being of God, even just the words of God withstand the test of time and endurance.

I think companies like Red Bull have to push out more and more content, stories, and performative acts of human bravery and peak ability because with active reminders the brand and its products would otherwise be forgotten. Even then, there is the constant need to innovate and stay relevant that drives companies such as this with new flavors, new sponsors, new athletes, new ads, and a race to the top of whatever financial goals make this a viable enterprise.

Even with a passion for the brand, the foundation of it all is formulas of mixed ingredients into a drink, packaged for sale at a store near you. With this perspective, it is no wonder that Isaiah describes people as like a blade of grass that withers or a flower that fades at the breath of the Lord (Isaiah 40:4). With all that we are capable of doing out of our own efforts, none of it is sustainable in the way that God's Word stands (Isaiah 40:8).

As I write, this reflection I find this perspective to be a bit disheartening, the level of honest self-reflection that says, "I am not enough" and can only do so much. Without pride in one's self and the drive to do and be an awesome and excellent expression of self, what is the point of living? Do I cut my losses and phone it in? Let go of attempts to push myself and grow beyond my current capabilities?

As a leader in Christian ministry I have not chosen to embrace such paths of woe, even if I have wrestled with such thoughts. I instead seek the persever, to keep putting in effort day-by-day. Not thanks to a bittersweet caffeinated push of manufactured energy, but by centering my understanding of self as a person who believes in, rests in, and is loved by God.

When I look to define who God is and why this knowing matters, I appreciate the poetic storytelling of Isaiah. Particularly, passages such as Isaiah 40:12 which read like Maya Angelou.

Who has measured the waters
in the hollow of his hand
and marked off the heavens with a span
enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure,
and weighed the mountains in scales
and the hills in a balance

If anyone is worth following, trusting, emulating, knowing, would it make more sense to ever consider someone else or some other god or idol, when compared to the "Holy One" (Isaiah 40:25)?

Now that the comparisons completely shatter the notion of any greater power, leaving me with no answer to the question that is plausible, I believe that we are left with a choice.

1. Endure though life by our own abilities, determination, and power

2. Endure through life under God's strength and power

When our thinking can let go of self-preservation, self-aggrandizement, self-sufficiency, then we both accept that we are but dust and that God finds us to be enough just as we are.

Isaiah 40:30 takes stock for us, reminding us that even the most healthy and energetic of us will get tired. Then, in verse 31, we are afforded words of assurance that "those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they will mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint."

In short, God gives us wings.

No matter the length of the journey and height of the challenges, God is ever renewing me so that my mind doesn't wander in comparisons as if I will find my hope of what is possible in social media or other such shining idols of influence and strength. I may not be as good as them, but they are not as good as God.

No matter the length of the journey and height of the challenges, God is ever renewing me so that when I take action and practice in light of my gifts and graces, that I don't get down or swallowed up in my shortcomings, but instead find the desire and ability to keep going and growing comes from God at work before, within, around, and after me.

No matter the length of the journey and height of the challenges, God is ever renewing me so that the heart of my living is not my own as I die to self daily and rise in Christ through the disciplines of faith and by God's grace.

I pray that I am ever renewed in the hope that comes from keeping the knowledge of God top-of-mind above the marketing of human-centered joy and energy. And I pray that others come to know God as they seek out ways of living that are truly life-giving.