Wednesday Read: When Walking Is All You Can Do
Isaiah 40:31 promises: "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." We tend to focus on soaring - who doesn't want to soar on eagle's wings? But notice the progression: soar, run, walk. It goes from spectacular to ordinary, from impressive to sustainable. Sometimes walking is all you can do, and that's enough.
You're not soaring right now. You're not running. You're barely walking - putting one foot in front of the other, making it through each day, maintaining minimal forward movement when you have no energy for anything impressive. This feels like failure compared to seasons when you soared. But sustained walking requires different strength than spectacular soaring. And God promises strength for both.
Elijah experienced this. After his spectacular victory over Baal's prophets on Mount Carmel - calling fire from heaven, executing false prophets, praying down rain - he ran before Ahab's chariot "as far as Jezreel" (1 Kings 18:46). That's about 30 kilometers. After fire from heaven, he ran a marathon. He was soaring. Then Jezebel threatened to kill him, and Elijah fled into the wilderness, collapsed under a tree, and prayed to die (1 Kings 19:3-4). From soaring to suicidal in one chapter.
God didn't rebuke Elijah for the crash. He sent an angel with food and water. Elijah ate, drank, and slept. The angel came again: "Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you" (1 Kings 19:7). After eating again, Elijah walked forty days to Horeb. Not soaring, not running - walking. One day at a time, sustained by supernatural provision, making steady progress toward where God was leading him.
This is the pattern after spectacular seasons. Soaring takes energy you can't sustain indefinitely. Eventually you come down - not because you failed but because humans can't fly continuously. The question is what happens when you land. Do you despair because you're not soaring anymore? Or do you trust that walking, though less spectacular, is still progress, still faithfulness, still enough?
Jesus demonstrated this. His ministry had spectacular moments - feeding thousands, healing diseases, calming storms, raising the dead. But much of his time was spent walking from town to town, teaching small groups, having ordinary conversations, enduring criticism and misunderstanding. Between miracles were miles of walking. The spectacular moments punctuated sustained ordinary faithfulness.
Modern Christianity often emphasizes soaring - breakthrough, revival, dramatic testimonies, visible results. We celebrate running - energy, passion, visible growth. We rarely celebrate walking - showing up when you don't feel like it, maintaining disciplines when they're boring, persevering when nothing dramatic happens. But most of life is walking. And God promises strength for walking, not just soaring.
You need different strength for walking than for soaring. Soaring requires burst of power - intense, spectacular, brief. Walking requires endurance - steady, sustainable, prolonged. When you're exhausted, you can't soar. You might not even be able to run. But you can walk if God gives you strength for it. And walking, though unimpressive, still gets you where you're going.
The promise in Isaiah is renewal: "Those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength." Renewal implies depletion. You can't renew what isn't depleted. If you need strength renewed, it means you're exhausted - which is normal after soaring, normal after running, normal after any sustained effort. The question isn't whether you get exhausted but where you look for renewal. Do you wait on the Lord, or do you just push through on fumes?
Waiting on the Lord means stopping to receive from him rather than just pushing forward on your own power. It means acknowledging you're depleted, you need strength you don't have, you can't sustain the current pace. It means being still long enough for God to renew what's been drained. This feels like wasting time when you could be productive. But depleted productivity isn't really productive - it's just exhausting.
Practically, this means adjusting expectations to match your capacity. When you can soar, soar. When you can only run, run. When walking is all you can manage, walk. Don't despise the day of small things. Don't assume you're failing because you're not soaring anymore. Different seasons require different capacities. God provides strength appropriate to what he's calling you to do in this season.
Right now, you might not be able to soar. That's okay. God promises strength for walking. Put one foot in front of the other. Make it through today. Show up tomorrow. Keep moving forward even when it's not impressive. Walking faithfully when you can't soar is more honoring to God than refusing to walk because you can't fly. Trust him to renew your strength for whatever this season requires - even if it's just steady walking.
