Marathons and Eagle's Wings

"May you run and not grow weary,
walk and not faint."  (based on Isaiah 40:31)

These are beautiful words of blessing, especially when they are displayed on a large banner near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, at the Old South Church on Boyleston Street.  What does the Old Testament say about running marathons?  If there is a secret to "run and not grow weary", whether it's a special kind of shoes, fail-safe 18-week training program, (legal) performance enhancing supplements (energy drinks, gels, beet juice, enzymes, tuna fish mixed with Rice Krispies, you name it), massage, I've tried them all.  I've gotten better over time, but I'm still working on the "not grow weary" part.  It turns out that the secret has to do with waiting.

Seriously.

But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings as eagles;
they shall run, and not be weary,
and they shall walk, and not faint.  (Isaiah 40:31, KJV)

Waiting upon the Lord does not necessarily mean that we not do anything.  It means that we prepare ourselves to be ready when God gives the command to move.  The waiting period is a time of preparation, of training, of development.  Bald eagle chicks remain in the nest for more than 3 months before they ever leave the nest.  If they leave too soon, they plunge to their deaths because they can't fly.  While waiting, they are feeding, growing, becoming physically mature, flapping their wings, and at the proper hour they leave the nest and successfully fly for the first time.  The prophet Elijah waited 3 years after his initial confrontation with King Ahab before his major showdown with the priests of Baal at Mount Carmel (1 Kings 17-18).  He wasn't just waiting - he was getting his faith tested by depending on God for provisions, initially by drinking from a brook and eating food provided by ravens, and later by subsisting on flour and oil from a destitute widow.  Spiritual muscle takes time to develop.  Before he called upon God to send fire on the sacrifice and send rain upon the land, he had to first flap the wings of his faith by raising the widow's dead son to life.

Similarly, when waiting to run the marathon, I trained by running, week after week after week.  I barely could finish 2 miles at a time when I first started running in the fall of 2003, but by the time I ran the 2007 Boston Marathon, I was routinely running over 100 miles a week.  It was worth the wait.

God may be calling us to action from time to time, but often, He calls us to wait as we study His word, pray, meditate and be salt and light to the world around us.  The waiting room is not necessarily a lounge...it's a gym.

Ready to run?