Recently I had the unique privilege of speaking at my youngest son’s high school graduation…thoughts that I would share with everyone-no matter how young or old-graduating to the next stage of life, family, business, and/ or ministry during this season of transitions. What comes to your mind, heart, and body when you hear the word “future”? Likely, if you are wired like me, it tends to be a mixed bag of excitement and fear. Emotions colored by the all-too-familiar sensation of “feeling in the dark” like I experienced recently after a flight delay in the unfamiliar layout of my brother’s house in the middle of the night as I feebly tried to find a bathroom.

The prophet Isaiah in Chapter 40 and verse 31 shows us a better way than feeling our way forward in the dark by ourselves…the tried and true way of “waiting” upon the Lord. Among Isaiah’s original readers, those who chose to hope in the Lord were the ones who would be restored. Even though they were weary in present captivity, the Lord would help them to be uplifted emotionally and spiritually. Recent graduates, as well as the rest of us, can never reach our full, God-intended potential unless we learn how to tap into the regular reinvigoration found only in our relationship with the Lord. A mantra I always repeating to myself and those I counsel is, “When you are tired/overwhelmed, learn to rest/renew, not quit.” We, with all of our inadequacies, can “seize the future” when we wait upon the Lord’s renewal in three seasons of life.

FLY to new heights.
“They shall mount up with wings as eagles…”

Recently one of our church’s preschool teachers texted me a picture of their class’s prayer requests list on a whiteboard that included a request that God would allow them “to fly.” I love such simple, big faith in a God who can do anything! To get a new level of life up and running requires tremendous energy and initiative, but there is no need to do it all on our own when God is willing and able to elevate us. (This solves the problem of Isaiah 40:30, “Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall.”)

While we are prone, on the threshold of a new stage of life, to skew heavily towards nostalgia, we must always be leaning forward if we want to be in step with He who sits in the eternal heavens. I truly believe that there are new heights that we can still reach…some of the greatest families, businesses, ministries, etc. have yet to be built in the name of Jesus. How can I still be confident of that in our day you ask. The Gospel. As John Bunyan buoys our souls, “Run…run, the law commands, but gives us neither feet nor hands. Far sweeter new the Gospel brings: It bids us fly and gives us wings.” Will you launch out of the “nest” with this gospel-fueled conviction?

RUN for intense paces.
“They shall run and not be weary…”

“Hitting the wall” (or “bonking”) in running refers to the sudden onset of extreme fatigue and weakness when your body’s glycogen stores (carbohydrates) are depleted during marathons and other endurance events. While starting something new and big for God can require incredible stamina, sustaining it during the building phase of life requires more, there is no need to be overwhelmed or shut down when God is the renewer no matter how much motion sickness/weakness in us. (This solves the problem of Isaiah 40:29b, “and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.”)

As Gunner Gundersen puts it, “In life, as in running, we find out who we are when we hit the hills.” Without the “intense pace” of life, we would never realize how strong and gracious our God is without fail.  We may be weak, as Isaiah mentions earlier in chapter, like grass (vv. 6–8), sheep (v. 11), dust (v. 15), grasshoppers (v. 22); but if we trust the power of God, we can be stronger moving forward no matter the pace. We must learn, with any present margins of life, to make God the regular source of our renewal in a way that is habitual long before we “hit the hills.”

WALK in long seasons.
“They shall walk, and not faint.”

On the threshold of new stages of life, we often feel we must move quickly even where we clack clarity. One author challenges that foolish train of thought, “Your direction is more important than your speed.  A lot of people are going nowhere fast.” As life progresses, the challenges often become less about the intensity of the journey and more about the length, but there is no pressure to be in a panicky rush when God is the source of our refreshment. (This solves the problem of Isaiah 40:29a, “He giveth power to the faint.”)

But there is more being alluded to here in Isaiah 40 than first meets the eye. MacDonald writes, “If the preceding thirty-nine chapters correspond to the books of the OT, then the following twenty-seven chapters (starting with Isaiah 40), filled with pictures of Jesus the Messiah, certainly correspond to the books of the NT. In this section of Isaiah (chaps. 40–66), the prophet looks forward to Judah’s return from Babylonian captivity and then to the entire nation’s future restoration at the Second Advent of Christ.” What does this mean for us who have access to both the Old and New Testaments as we too await the second coming of Jesus? The only way to faithfully/fervently reach the future that God that has promised you is to WALK TOWARDS IT IN HIS WORD that will sustain and renew you like nothing else!

Martin Luther King Jr. is quoted as saying, “If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” That inspirational content sounds great, but-may I ask-HOW with limited human resources in real life? The answer is found in Isaiah 40:28 “Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.” The point of this passage is to remind us of WHO our God is in every generation and stage of life!!!  The God you have been learning about your entire life to this point is unlike all other “gods” as eternal Creator who never grows weary. He alone can always give strength to those who need refreshed. He anticipates our weakness and eagerly-not-reluctantly meets us right there.

The picture at the top of this post is of “Snode Strong” T-shirts (Special Thanks to Mrs. Cheryl Walters for Designing/Printing Them for Many Supporters) with this verse on the back selected by my son for his “senior verse” while navigating his #healthforlandon journey through years of unrelenting, chronic pain that we are still navigating. Hence why I deemed it appropriate to make it, through tears-barely-in-check emotion on my part, the obvious text for my address to his dear graduating class, school faculty, and school families that have been so sweet and supportive of our family in recent months.

So what does all of this mean in not just an abstract but practical and powerful way? Scotty Smith sums up so well this familiar verse, “Sometimes falling down—but always falling forward; occasionally soaring high, with intermittent stretches of running and walking—no matter our pace…all the way into the new heaven and new earth.” Whatever new, intense, or prolonged season this post find you in, will you join me in reaching forward to God’s inevitable, irrevocable future with His renewal that can alone enable you to vibrantly FLY, RUN, and WALK?