Are those wings I hear? Yes, they are. I’m taking wings and flying toward a new horizon. I’m trusting others are also moving toward new possibilities in this new year.
We need to click the dimmer button on last year’s rearview mirror. We saw things we wish we hadn’t. The opposition is getting stronger.
Pilots like to fly against strong winds. The adverse winds will lift the plane and give it speed. Not sure how that works, but when things get tough, it seems we get tougher.
I commented to our writers’ group that it doesn’t matter how we limp across the room, it’s how we fly as writers. The group includes seven members over 80 and our precious Edith attends in a wheelchair at 95 years young and is still writing.
We look like soldiers coming home from the Civil War. Our avid skier who lives for the slopes is wearing a sling on his arm. He won’t be skiing this year. Our young tech guy, who experienced a brain tumor the size of a tangerine while in Slovakia, has a big slice in his head from surgery. Our 87-year-old children’s story author is recuperating from a heart attack in the hospital. Several of us have taken to the cane, but we are still flying high in spirit.
A newscaster said this week, “The baby boomers were late getting married and having children. They are mad at their elderly parents who are not available as babysitters. Their parents are on cruises, traveling to foreign places and playing bingo. And many of them have taken up writing their memoirs and stories, still living full lives.”
I asked my Sweet Al a question this morning as we enjoyed our Bible study. “Who are you most afraid of letting down, and why?”
He had to process this before he answered. He always thinks I’m asking him a trick question. I’m not — just one to make him think.
I immediately said, “Who am I most afraid of letting down? No one, except the Lord. Yet he knows me. Al, you know me, also. I’m not afraid of letting you down. You know all about me. I can’t surprise you. If I let you down, you knew I would anyway. If I make a mistake, it probably won’t be as bad as I’ve done in the past.
“I believe that is a perk as we’ve grown older. We are in a place where we don’t have to prove ourselves. We refuse to put ourselves under anyone’s scrutiny.”
As we grow older in this new year, limitations are more demanding and oppositions are stronger. I’ve never felt the call as strong as I have to pray. It’s a paradox; we are moving into a new year with greater potential of flying higher and yet I’ve never felt the wind so strong in my face as now.
Paul wrote in Ephesians about spiritual warfare. “Now my beloved ones, I have saved these most important truths for last: Be supernaturally infused with strength through your life-union with the Lord Jesus. Stand victorious with the force of his explosive power flowing in and through you.” — Ephesians 6:10 (TPT).
That is the fruition of our walk with God all these years. Our spirit man is growing stronger and our fleshly man is growing weaker. The fleshly battles with health and safety are brutal, but our faith to believe in an all-loving God is easier.
I told Al I am amazed we are still alive and wake to each other’s voice each morning. We are still breathing. Many of our friends have lost their lifetime partners. Several families have lost both parents this last year.
I’m looking forward to this new year being filled with greater possibilities. As I’m making plans for my next big project, I believe it will be the zenith of my days, the highest point of my life, spiritually speaking. And no, I’m not planning on exiting this earth for heaven any time soon.
After studying the word “zenith”, I feel it fits my generation of those over 70 and 80. Zenith means the highest point in an arc traveled by a star, a planet or another celestial body. The sun reaches its zenith when it is as high in the sky as it’s going to go on that day.
We’ve lived long enough to shed the expectations of others holding us down. The workload of daily life and the indecisiveness of what we should be doing is diminishing. Also, the temptations of the flesh are fading. When I used to say, “I shouldn’t say this, but ...” I’m learning to know I shouldn’t say that. Period.
Final brushstroke: God tells us He has designed us for a certain purpose. For me it’s writing. Writing is reaching the summit. I’ve found a place in an intimate relationship with my Lord Jesus. I want to write about. It is a place where it is well with my soul. Yes, if you hear the flutter of wings, just know, I’m moving over my head and reaching the highest point I can reach in this new year.
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