“It is beautiful to discover our wings and learn how to fly; flight is a beautiful process. But then to rest on the wings of God as He flies: this is divine.” ~C JoyBell C.
Step up to the edge and look over.
Knees shake.
Chest tightens.
Heart to throat.
A million butterflies release.
Deep breath.
Jump. Leap. Fly.
Soar.
There it is. The word.
SOAR.
It first visited me three years ago, in a note written by my best friend. I opened the little envelope as I watched the sunrise over the hills in Western Romania. I thought I knew what it meant then. I thought the soaring was about other people, other things, other ministry. Now I see that the word was being planted in my heart for such a time as this.
How many times has that happened to you? Something – a moment or a word or a picture – finds its way into your heart to be tended to there, so when the time is right, it comes to life in a new way?
When I first began praying about what word might become my anthem for 2015, two words emerged.
SOAR (still).
And it was the “still” that perplexed me. Because it means three things:
To rest.
To calm.
To remain.
I wondered how “soar” and “still” could live in the same space – and why one would silently follow the other. Until I remembered this:
God doesn’t come and go. God lasts.
He’s Creator of all you can see or imagine.
He doesn’t get tired out, doesn’t pause to catch His breath.
And He knows everything, inside and out.
He energizes those who get tired,
gives fresh strength to dropouts.
For even young people tire and drop out,
young folk in their prime stumble and fall.
But those who wait upon God get fresh strength.
They spread their wings and soar like eagles,
They run and don’t get tired,
they walk and don’t lag behind. ~Isaiah 40 (MSG)
Soaring is past the leap. Soaring is past the flying. Soaring is catching the air currents like an eagle, allowing divinity to hold and lift and carry. Soaring is powerfully moving and then stopping. Resting. Calming. And remaining.
As much as soaring is powerful, it is also completely dependent. Soaring is so bold – not because it defies gravity, but because it has faith to believe it won’t fall (still).
And the tears fall. Because two years ago, my word was “willing” – both the strong-natured pressing onward and the yielding. Last year, it was “redeem” – both the make all things new and the being made new. And those years have led to this one.
They have tended to my heart too.
A million butterflies release again.
God turns you from one feeling to another and teaches by means of opposites so that you will have two wings to fly, not one. ~Rumi
My best friend crafted this for me to honor 2015’s word. The Monja Blanca (White Nun Orchid) on the Guatemalan 50 centavo represents beauty, art, and peace. But it means so much more in this moment. The flower grows on other plants rather than standing on its own – it’s dependent on their strength to hold it up. Yet it needs no other flower to recreate itself. It’s rare (an albino, actually) and it’s beautiful, and its center looks like a nun on her knees in prayer. The orchid takes 15 years to bloom, and then only blooms from December to February.
And I hear the question being asked by the One who created the White Nun: “Would you wait 15 years to only bloom for three months? Would you be willing to be held up by others in order to have the power to give your life away?
“Are you ready to risk it all to show how rare and beautiful you really are?”
Here’s to that risk. Here’s to the waiting and the blooming season. Here’s to soaring. And to you – the ones who will hold me up – I say “thank you.” You’ll be part of the stories I’m writing and the stories I’m learning along the way. You’ll help this girl give her life away.
(And to my best friend who holds the other wing, I say, “God is so good to me to give me you. Here’s to our words. Here’s to the books and the artwork and the all-in.”)
*****
What is your word this year? And what is it that you are willing to risk to show how rare and beautiful you really are? I’d love to know. I’ll be like that orchid – on my knees in prayer for you.