“Learning to Fly”
Isaiah 40:21-31
The late Tom Petty has a song where he sings: “I’m learning to fly, but I ain’t got wings.”
Learning to fly is a metaphor for learning to live.
I don’t know how Tom Petty interpreted what it means to “learn to live,” but as Christians learning to live means learning to trust in God, learning that we can put our hope in the Lord even when the going gets rough, and it will.
A young woman named Amy Grenoble writes about her many years battling an eating disorder.
Her days were filled with mental battles, prayers of desperation, attempts to repair injured relationships and doctor’s appointments.
She writes, “I confess…I harbored resentment toward people who declare they have heard the voice of God.
Then, one morning I had my own encounter with God.
As I sat in my doctor’s waiting room, my eyes were drawn to a scrap of paper lying at my feet.
On it were the words, ‘Never give up. Never give in.’”
Amy continues, “Was it a message from God?
That’s what it felt like to me.
I placed this anonymous encouragement where I can see it every day.”
Have you ever had a message from God when you were in a desperate time or situation?
Has God ever brought you hope, even in the middle of despair?
When my wife Clair was young the wife of her pastor died of cancer.
He was in the pulpit the next Sunday and he was totally devastated.
And he preached from the passage of Scripture we are looking at for this morning: “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.”
In that sermon, her pastor talked about how, because of his faith in God, he would not be defeated by his loss.
He would continue being a minister.
He would continue preaching, teaching, reaching out to his community and sharing the good news of Jesus Christ.
And even though the worst had happened, it would not crush him.
And that was because he knew he could hope in the Lord.
Clair never forgot that sermon.
She says of all the sermons she has heard in her life, that sermon has had the most profound impact.
Life is far from easy for any of us.
Last week I read an article titled, “Elmo asked how everyone’s doing, and um, they’re not great!”
Apparently, the beloved Sesame Street character wrote on social media: “Elmo is just checking in! How is everybody doing?”
Within 24 hours Elmo’s post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, had received 110 million views.
According to the response to Elmo’s question, people in general are not doing well, and maybe they are doing badly.
Celebrities, news outlets, Sesame Street characters’ accounts, and everyday people replied—many with existential dread, despair, and exhaustion.
“I’m resisting the temptation to tell Elmo that I am kinda sad,” replied one person.
Many others wrote about seasonal depression in a never-ending winter, a deadly war that’s potentially widening in the Middle East, losing their jobs amid mass layoffs in tech and other sectors and it goes on and on.
The article noted that “the overall tone [of the responses] reflected a sense of hopelessness that appears to be common.”
One user pointed out with the meme, “The world is burning around us.”
Is that how you feel this morning?
Is that how you feel a lot of the time?
Are you living without hope?
Or are you just feeling kind of sad?
(pause)
Isaiah knew how hard it can be for us to remember God is with us and loves us especially when we are facing life’s many challenges.
In our Old Testament Lesson for this morning, Isaiah was writing to the people of Israel after they had been exiled.
They felt faint and powerless.
They watched as their young people became weary and fell exhausted.
They thought God had forgotten them.
They wondered if God still loved them.
They were feeling hopeless and insecure.
And so, Isaiah sent them a message.
He knew that what they needed was to remember that God is always with them, and that if they were to lift their eyes to the heavens…
…if they could remember that God created and knows the number of stars in the sky and calls them each by name…
…and that this same God loves them more than they can imagine…
…if they would just put their hope in that God they would “renew their strength”…
…they would “soar on wings like eagles; they would run and not grow weary, walk and not be faint.”
This Scripture passage for this morning is for us just as much as it was for the Babylonian exiles so long ago.
It’s about God and how God can be trusted even when all we seem to be is down.
In the busyness of our lives, it can be easy to forget about the Reality of God, God’s attentiveness to every single one of us, God’s love and care for every single person.
When we are freaking out about our finances are we able to remember Jesus’ Words: “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?
Yet none of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father…
…so don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”?
When we feel unloved or un-loveable are we able to remember that “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”?
“Don’t you know? Have you not heard?”
(pause)
Several years ago, a church building was destroyed by a deadly tornado.
The children’s choir had been having practice when the storm hit.
The pastor had seen the tornado coming and quickly moved the children into the main hallway of the church.
Scared to death, the little kids huddled in that hallway as the winds destroyed their church building.
To try and calm the children’s fears, the pastor started leading them in singing “Jesus Loves the Little Children.”
Some of the children were injured that day, but miraculously none were killed.
In an interview with a local news crew, one of the little girls said, “While we were singing, I saw angels holding up the hallway.
But the winds were so strong that the angels shouted out: ‘We need help!’ and some more angels came and helped them.”
That little girl will never forget what she saw, and Lord willing it will help her to remember that God can be trusted.
She can put her hope in the Lord.
Amy Grenoble will never forget what she saw.
Amy Grenoble will never forget God speaking to her through the words on that scrap of paper in her doctor’s office: “Never give up. Never give in.”
Clair will never and has never forgotten the sermon her pastor gave on Isaiah Chapter 40 the week his beloved wife passed away.
She will never forget that it was the pastor’s faith that gave him the hope and the strength he needed to persevere even when things seemed darkest.
I will never forget many instances in my life, when, feeling like I was at the end of my rope—God spoke to me through a Scripture verse, a sermon, a friend, a song, in prayer.
How has God spoken to you when you were at the end of your rope?
What has God done to remind you that God can be counted on—that you can hope in Him, and that life is not a cruel joke after all?
In this life we will never fully understand how God works in the world, why suffering continues and evil seems to reign in so many places.
But we can learn that the God Who “stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them like a tent to live in” loves us, is always with us, and can be depended on.
This is what people who have turned to God in their times of distress—finding hope and renewed strength in Him have been learning and relearning since human life began.
It’s what the first disciples learned, as they huddled together behind locked doors in fear for their lives after the crucifixion when suddenly the Resurrected Christ came, stood among them, and said, “Peace be with you!”
God can be trusted.
We can put our hope in the Lord.
Jesus says to you and Jesus says to me: “Come…all you who are weary and burdened…
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.”
Life is difficult for all of us and the challenges we face can be so severe that even the young will faint and grow weary.
But to those who surrender their lives completely to God, and hope in Him, Isaiah has a word of very deep encouragement: “The Lord will renew [our] strength.”
We will “soar on wings like eagles.”
This is so exciting to me.
And you know, I’m finding out it IS true.
I’m learning to fly!
How about you?
