… 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.
Isaiah 40:31 NIV
Run and Walk
Simon St. Quentin Whitfield (born May 16, 1975 in Kingston, Ontario) is a retired Olympic triathlon champion from Canada. Whitfield won 10 consecutive Canadian Triathlon Championship titles and carried the Canadian national flag during the 2000 Summer Olympics closing ceremony in Sydney, where he had won his gold medal, and the opening ceremony at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, making him one of few Canadian athletes to be honoured twice as Olympic flag bearer.
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I love to read the stories about Jesus. The reaction to His healing, delivering, and raising the dead was always uninhibited joy. The man who went away running and leaping and praising God is one of my favourites. He had been crippled and now he was not. Besides being a very real physical healing, it points to what the prophet spoke to many centuries before in Isaiah 40:31: “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.” The crippled man knew that Jesus was the healer and reached out in faith to Him. A man who had been without hope now found hope welling up as he reached out to Jesus. It happens for us as well. We may not have physical challenges, but we are all spiritually paralyzed by sin. When Jesus touches us, faith wells up within us and we sense the new life that Jesus provides flowing into our souls. We experience the fullness of life that Jesus promised to all who follow Him. He becomes the wind beneath our wings, the adrenaline in our souls. Our joy, like His provision, is unbounded.
These have been words from the heart.
Bob Beasley