Waiting Upon the Lord

 

But those 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 40:31

Walter Breuggemann wrote, "It is such an intellectual travesty, such an act of chutzpah, such a subversive poetic utterance that dumps a poem in the midst of resignation." 

How does this poem fit into our world? Into our lives? Is it an intellectual travesty - a misplacement of hope - a strange optimism when compared to what surrounds us? War, political unrest, religious division, addiction, hate, horror?  In other words, can we even imagine mounting up with wings like eagles?

It is a beautiful image, a lovely poem, but is the hope real? I'm not asking you if God is real; I'm asking if the hope is imaginable?

I think when you experience it, when you are in the midst of grief or pain, and you call upon the Lord, and find God, then the hope is real. The experience reminds us of the truth of the hope.

I live in a world where political candidates are literally declaring in television ads that it is our "God-given right to own a gun."  It's the worst kind of religious nationalism.  I can't imagine how people or beliefs can be reconciled. And yet, there is this hope that when we wait upon the Lord, unimagined things happen.