Flying High with Feet on the Ground

Two words hit me like lightning bolts: “mount up,” when I read this familiar verse, “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint” (Isa 40:31). Some Bible translations and commentators translate “mount up” as soaring, but in Hebrew, the words mean “arise, (cause) to ascend, carry up.” Before one can soar in high places, one must first rise from where they are, even eagles. Those majestic birds, representing freedom and power, molt their feathers, even in old age, growing new ones for renewed strength to fly high, soaring with the wind beneath their wings.

We, too, must shed the toils and challenges, anything that suppresses us in this life, for God to renew our strength. And He will if we humble ourselves before Him. But the words Isaiah penned are not all-inclusive; God’s promise for renewed strength is for believers who look to, hope in, and put their trust in the Lord—intertwined with Him. We, too, can reach life’s soaring heights with God empowering and carrying us, as we depend on and commune with Him; we can run revitalized and tirelessly walk. But we must first choose to “wait upon the Lord.”