On Eagle's Wings: The God-Directed Life

John Claypool was pastor of the Crescent Hill Baptist Church in the late sixties, and we were in Louisville, Kentucky for our first furlough from missionary service in Brazil. It was the time when the Claypools were going through the agony of watching their seven year old daughter, Laura, die of leukemia. Towards the last days of young Laura’s life, John Claypool preached a sermon on this text entitled, "Strength Not to Faint". That day he stood to confess to his congregation: "I want you to know," he said, "that I am not soaring like the eagle today. I’m not running like the footman. I am barely walking through this experience, just asking God to give me "strength not to faint."

Out of that message I learned something that enabled me to better understand just what it means to live the God-directed life. I learned that God doesn’t promise to make me "soar" anytime I may want to or "run" any time I want to run or walk when I want to walk. I guess I learned that God exercises His lordship over, not just the time of my life and the strength of my life, but He also wants to be Lord over the rhythm or the pace of my life.

Some want to soar all the time in the heights of spiritual ecstasy. Peter wanted that on the Mount of Transfiguration. "Lord," he said, "It is good to be here. Let’s just build three tents and stay." Jesus didn’t let it happen. He led them from the mountain top to the valley below where there were hurting people. The God-directed life will not allow us to always be on some spiritual mountaintop.

We are often like Lucy in an old "Peanuts" comic strip. Lucy was complaining about her lousy life. Charley Brown is trying to cheer her up. "Into each life some rain must fall," he said. That didn’t seem to help at all. Then he thought of another saying: "Just remember, life has its mountains and its valleys, its ups and its downs." To which Lucy replied, "All I want is ups and ups and ups!"

Some of us are like that. We are wired as Type A personalities. We want to be running all the time. Maybe what God is wanting to say to us here is something like this: "Let me set the rhythm of your life. When I want you to soar, I’ll give you strength to soar. And when I want you to run for me, I’ll give you strength to run. And when it’s OK just to walk, then I will give you strength to walk and not faint. If you see others soaring when you are just walking, don’t let it bother you. If others run swiftly by you in the race of life, don’t pay them any mind. You don’t have to feel guilty, you don’t have to feel second rate, because it is I who sets the pace of your life." To me that is a great source of strength and comfort as I retire, slow down to a calmer pace and turn the reins over to a younger generation.

The God-directed life, life on eagle’s wings, is the life that waits upon the Lord, letting Him set the time table of our lives; it is letting Him determine the rhythm of life. It is, in a word, simply letting God be God in every area of your life.

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1 Page Kelley, "Isaiah," The Broadman Bible Commentary, Vol. 5, p.302 (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1971)