Renewing Your Strength: Soar Like An Eagle

Overcoming great odds or adversity is the story of dreams. The stuff of nightmares is the direct opposite; fear, failure, hopelessness. We’ve all had times when we faced these sorts of odds or found we had to make significant, daunting change.

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The motion picture Elizabeth: The Golden Age reminded me of a principle true to life in any age or season; that is the exemplification of courage to sweep with and ride, the winds of change. This sort of manifest courage is borne of resilient hope, which is based in faith: the ability to see and therefore believe what may not be visible.

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When the Spanish Armada was defeated in 1588, Queen Elizabeth I recovered from odds too astounding to contemplate. Outnumbered and seemingly with God against her (having previously ordered and delivered the execution of the Lord’s anointed, her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots[1] for treason) she and England faced extermination at the hands of the Spanish. Incredibly, history records a stupendous victory for England.[2]

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What struck me about this movie however, was its climax... the stylised interaction between Elizabeth I and her trusted and wise astrologer. With the supremely powerful Spanish Armada bearing down on England, the Queen is at her depths and desperate for fresh hope, when she implores the astrologer for a positive prophetic message. This he cannot give, but he does say:

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“But this much I know...
When the storm breaks,
Each man acts in accordance with his own nature,
Some are dumb with terror,
Some flee,
Some hide,
... And some spread their wings like eagles and soar on the wind.”

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The rest is history. The turning point in the movie is reached and England goes onto an inspired victory that would pave the way for extended peace and prosperity for that land.

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And there is a personal message in this for us. Those with the resilience of hope driving a stern sense of courage, conquer their fears as did Queen Elizabeth I. As the winds of ignorable change come, it’s those with courage of conviction that can indeed soar on that wind, rising with the updraft under their wings. They go onto a better revelation. We act in accordance with our own natures. There was never more reason to develop a strong faith and a resilient sense of hope was there?

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And I believe all this is Biblical. The Eighth Century B.C.E. prophet Isaiah spoke plainly in his ‘book of comfort’ nearly 3,000 years ago:

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28 Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

The LORD is the everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary,

and his understanding no one can fathom.

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29 He gives strength to the weary

and increases the power of the weak.

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30 Even youths grow tired and weary,

and young men stumble and fall;

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31 but 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.

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-Isaiah 40:28-31.

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When you find it hard to deal with change or meet the challenge that’s in your midst, have hope -- that will drive courage. Those who hope in God will renew their strength. You might just feel yourself being swept up in something that is truly hard to quantify -- your strength will come from a place you cannot fathom. And truly you will be very thankful. This can only be explained by gaining invisible help from a mighty God.

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Copyright © 2008, Steven John Wickham. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

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[1] Mary Queen of Scots was the mother of the future King James, the eventual successor to the throne and author of the King James Bible of 1611.
[2] Subsequently, Elizabeth I was famous in Church history for engineering ‘the Middle Way’ (via media) in the toleration of Protestantism and Catholicism, or “between the extremes of Romanism and Puritanism, (which) has characterized the Anglican Communion ever since.” See Robert D. Linder, The History of the Church, (Carlisle, Cumbria: Candle Books, 2002), p. 16.