How to Soar

Monday I glanced out the window and something caught my eye. A bird of prey, perhaps an eagle, was attempting to fly, but the blizzard winds were making it so hard for him that he appeared to be suspended in mid-air.

I found myself drawn into this bird's plight. I watched him for ten minutes, all the while noticing the contrast between his flight patterns and those of the typical eagle.  He didn't soar. He tried, but he couldn't. He flapped his huge wings frantically but made almost no progress, yet every time he changed directions and flew as one with the wind, he soared.

In my mind, I advised the bird to stop fighting the wind: Can't you see it works better if you just give in to the wind?  Immediately I felt the Spirit of the Lord reminding me: Don't be so quick to judge that bird.

How many times have I tried to get to a destination (or in my case, a goal), but tried to get there in a way that was contrary to God's Word? How many times have I fought the wind just because I wanted to do things my way?

I'd rather not answer that.

A specific area of my life where I struggle with this is in my marriage. My goals for my marriage are straight from God and from His Word. That's great. What's not great is how I've tried to achieve those goals. Instead of doing all of the things that God has told me to do, I've tried to improve my marriage by obeying God only in the areas that seem the least difficult and the least painful. The rest of the time I'm trying to use my own methods.

Instead of putting a complete stop to my nagging, I will sometimes "playfully" nag, acting like I'm just joking when we both know I'm not. Instead of completely letting go of control of certain things, I insist on holding on out of fear. Instead of showing my husband unconditional respect and honor, I give him excuses about how he needs to change certain things before I can consistently treat him with the respect he so desires.

Instead of reaching my destination of having a godly marriage that shines His Light in the darkness, I flap frantically, trying to go against the wind.

And I get nowhere.

And like that bird, I get tired really fast.

So I will take a lesson from that flying friend of mine, and I will continue to try to reach my destination by going God's way instead of my own.  Only then will I be able to soar.

But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.
They will soar high on wings like eagles.
They will run and not grow weary.
They will walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:31 (NLT)