Where will you get your wings?

Where will you get your wings?

Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

The LORD is the everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary,

and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary

and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,

and young men stumble and fall;
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 40:28-31)

A couple of weeks ago as was in the airport waiting for a flight and had some time to kill so I sat down and began to look around the room. I was thirsty at the time and quickly spotted a vending machine. I was starring off into the distance thinking about how good a Gatorade would taste when a guy by the vending machine caught my eye. He was wearing a bright yellow hat and was sipping an energy drink. “Everybody is drinking energy drinks these days,” I thought to myself. Just this past week one of my classmates was downing a Monster before Spanish. I asked him if he was tired and he told me he had been up late the night before studying for a test and had baseball practice that afternoon. That same week I was in the locker room getting ready for a basketball game when and noticed one of the referees waiting to change clothes – energy drink in hand.

We have grown so accustomed today with our busy schedules to combating our tiredness with coffee, energy drinks and soda. We are constantly on the go and run from place to place with hardly enough time to get there. How often do we do everything we can to mask our tiredness so we can just make it through the day only to wake up the morning and with the same problem? Our days are crazy and we have settled for a temporary fix instead of choosing to address the real problem. Before I continue I want to make sure and be clear. Soda, coffee and energy drinks in and of themselves are not bad, they are actually rather good. It is what our usage of them says about us that I am getting at. America today is tired and the issue is not physical but spiritual. I think the Bible has a lot to say that might be able to help us out. How about the verse above from Isaiah 40? Or Matthew 11:28-30?

“Come to me all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls? For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Is your soul in need of rest? What if you started making “the joy of the Lord your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10) instead of your usual morning coffee or started turning to the one who “gives strength to the weary” and “increased the power of the weak” (Isaiah 40:29) when you find yourself beginning to grow tired? By turning to the Lord and His word in your weakness you find comfort in knowing things like, “when you are weak, He is strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10) and you find instruction on how to find rest such as God’s words to us is Exodus 20:8, “Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.” Today we have a really hard time with rest and a really hard time with the Sabbath. We push ourselves really hard and don’t rest well. C.S. Lewis talks in Mere Christianity about charity and says that we struggle with giving, both of our money and of our time “because of our fear of insecurity.” Our tendency to go, go, go and not rest is rooted in our lack of trust that God will provide like he says he will. I encourage you to try trusting in the Lord more. “Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might” (Eph 6:10). Read Matthew 6 and remember times in the past that where He had proven Himself faithful. Whether or not we rest in the Lord is a choice we make everyday. We can either but our faith in our own merits and efforts or we can but our faith in the everlasting God. There is a popular energy drink our right now with the slogan “Red Bull gives you wings.” Isaiah 40:31 says, “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength, they will soar on wings like eagles.” Where will you get your wings today?