Creeping and Soaring

[Dan R. Crawford]

The days are different. Some days I find myself with high energy, desiring to accomplish much. Then on other days, I just want to sit on the porch and sip coffee. Carl Sandburg expressed it this way: “There is an eagle in me that wants to soar, and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud.” However, Helen Keller countered with “One can never consent to creep when one feels the impulse to soar.” The idea that compares youth to soaring like an eagle, is mentioned several times in the Bible, but its application should not be limited to the young. In Old Testament days, there was a popular idea, based on a rabbinical story, that the eagle renewed its youth (actually, renewed its plumage), in extreme old age. In Psalm 103:5, the psalmist refers to the fresh and vigorous appearance of the bird with its new plumage, “your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” Understanding that belief, Isaiah wrote, “Those who wait on 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). While he wasn’t commenting directly on the Isaiah passage, A. W. Tozer wrote, “In almost everything that touches our everyday life on earth, God is pleased when we’re pleased. He wills that we be as free as birds to soar and sing our maker’s praise without anxiety.” So, on your high energy days, go ahead and soar like the eagle, and on other days, creep on out to the porch, and pull up a chair.