"but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.
they will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint."
~Isaiah 40:31 (NIV)

Too many times we think that a life of faith is one that is meant to make us happy, saturated with worry free lives and a new blessing is just around the corner. If we pray the right prayer, use the right words, go to the church house and worship with all our might. But I see life as less like a road, and more like the sea, the middle of the ocean when all that can be seen is the water surrounding us and no markers or objects at which to aim at times. It is in those times that we understand there is only one way to make such a trip through this temporary voyage. Some find diversion to forget the mindless floating, others panic, still others abandon the journey and delve deeply into an abyss seemingly impenetrable by anyone or anything.

I took a run/walk along a strange trail not too long ago. I was in unfamiliar territory, well away from any beaten paths that provide the normal, already experienced, comfortable, and flat trip that leads me home each time. This time I was lost, perhaps a run/walk/ramble that was preparing me for a time in life where my life raft was bobbing on the waters of life in which there were no recognizable markers for which to aim. The time spent was longer than I had anticipated, but the arrival back to my truck that would lead me home was sweeter than the usual ending. In the mystery of being lost, finding my home was ever sweeter. Reminding me of the words that I have sung many times, "I once was lost, but now I am found, was blind but now I see."

Later that evening in the quiet moment upstairs in my study I wrote these words about the exhausting travel I had endured that day, and how it resembles living day to day to day.



In the bliss of knowing God, and better yet being known by Him,
we sometimes soar in the ecstatic experience of undeserved God given grace.
As the sun makes way higher above from the place where he once laid low,
the darkness is gone, the space filled with cool air becomes filled with
exhausting heat.
Morning is over, the rays of the day embolden the song of birds and the
sound of my ever slowing steps and sounds of the unseen.
The steps slow to a walk and the confusion of where I am creates confusion,
but the sky is still blue and each tree looks the same as the last.
No longer soaring as at the beginning, and the run has caused my weariness.
It is the cadence of continual motion that gives energy for life,
Knowing that with God we may soar, or run, but in the uphill traverse,
we slow to a walk as our strength is renewed and our hearts are filled.
The gait matters not, only our direction.
We are never lost when we orient ourselves as we travel toward the Son.
The Son of God, who soared, ran, and walked with us in every footprint
left on even the strangest of paths.