how the weary find their wings
I see her sitting near the back of the room as she watches the voices swarm around her. A tired sigh breaks from her chest; I can’t hear it but I see it tearing through her soul too. Her eyes move back and forth to keep the tears from falling out and stealing her cover; the mask she fights against but also fights for.
And it is this paradox that breeds the insanity she feels pressing hard against everything precious and fragile within her.
I wait for her to catch my eyes, if only for a second. I know the prison bars so well, so closely, so presently — this cage without doors. Somehow we stumble toward proving the words we hate: trapped. forgotten. tired. broken. hidden.
These are the words of the anti-gospel, words that cut and rip and shatter, words that slip in like thieves and reign as tyrants. We have learned the foreign language of the enemy better than the language of our homeland, of our Father, of our hope.
This is why the good news is vital to our every single day and we must learn to speak it well. We need to be grabbing the fragile sisters and brothers sitting in the backdrop and help them find their wings. And out of all the voices screaming for our attention in our music, friendships, textbooks, chit-chat, news feeds, family gatherings and lunch breaks we must be living and breathing the good news that can save caged souls and restore weary hearts.
Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”?
Sometimes we need to acknowledge that we feel hidden, disregarded, alone. Confession opens the door wide for mercy. And good news was meant to invade bad spaces.
Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.
We are fragile, failing, anything but everlasting. But He is everlasting and that makes Him a safe place we can trust. He literally spoke blue skies and storm clouds and mountain tops and autumn leaves and snowflakes and galaxies and eyelashes and laughter into existence with His Words. He is Creator, and He can create beauty from desolation, even in our weary hearts. We grow tired, faint, and weary, but He does not. He is never weary of you. He understands us better than we will ever understand ourselves or Him.
He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.
In your weariness, does God seem tightfisted to you? Listen here, He GIVES. When we have nothing left to give, He gives. He gives power. He increases your strength. “For You equipped me with strength for the battle…” (Psalm 18:39)
Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they 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 40:27-31, ESV)
Not even your early twenties can stand up against exhaustion. We are bound to limitations and only the waiting soul finds the back door out. God gives RENEWAL. Think of it: “to begin again, to restore, to replenish, to revive.” All those miracles happen to those who wait for the Lord; not the government, not the doctor, not the next paycheck, not the medicine, not the end of the bottle, not the next child, not a better husband, not a new job, not a new home, not a new electronic device … but those who want RENEWAL wait on the LORD.
No longer on the sidelines, they run forward in joy.
No longer afraid of reaching the end of their rope, they walk in hope.
No longer hidden from the Lord, they are seen.
And the cages break open and their wings are found.