Walk. Run. Soar! Chapter One

Things about WINGS

“The reason birds can fly and we can't is simply that they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings.”1 James Matthew Barrie, Creator of Pan, 1860-1937 

~Fly Or Die

Wings are necessary for flight.  Flying with broken wings is possible, but painful.  Broken wings healed are stronger and strong wings inspire others fly.  Most will fly or die trying!

            We’re not talking birds though, but people.  Women in particular.  There is an insatiable longing to take flight.  To rise above.  To be more than.   

            Transcending, rising above, over, or out of, is necessary in order to become what God intends us to be.  It is something, however, that we cannot do on our own.  In Scripture, this process is pictured as the power imparted by “the wings of God.”

·        Exodus 19:4 NIV,                                                                                                                                                                  “…I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you to Myself.”  God delivers His people from slavery so they can go in and possess the Promise Land.

·        Deuteronomy 32: 11 MSG,                                                                                                                        “He was like an eagle hovering over its nest,
      overshadowing its young,
   Then spreading its wings, lifting them into the air,
      teaching them to fly.”  Moses recounts how God protected their grandfather Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, and then them, the Children of Israel.

• Ruth 2:12 NLT ,                                                                                                                                                 “May the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge, reward you fully for what you have done.”  Future husband, Boaz, compliments Ruth on her faith and faithfulness.
• Psalm 55:6 KJV,                                                                                                                                              “Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest.”  The younger David prays for deliverance while fleeing for his life.
• Psalm 91:4 NKJV,

“He shall cover you with His feathers,
         And under His wings you shall take refuge;
         His truth shall be your shield and buckler.”  King David testifies from his experience of God’s power.

• Isaiah 40:31 NASB,

“Those who wait for the LORD
         Will gain new strength;
         They will mount up with wings like eagles,
         They will run and not get tired,
         They will walk and not become weary.”  The prophet Isaiah comforts and directs God’s people.

• Matthew 23:37 NIV,

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.”  Jesus’ judgment of the religious elite turns to intimate sorrow for His Jewish kinsmen.

            This picture of the Almighty as a graceful, gentle, yet powerful Enabler has spoken to me many times in my life.  I have taken cover under and ridden high upon the wings of God.  I have learned to fly because He showed me how.  Most often, though, these “flying lessons” were taught by substitute teachers, God’s right people who were in the right place at my right time. 

Mama, Daddy, Aunt Shirley Ulman-Queen, Miss News, Pamo, Pastor John Maxwell, Richard, my own kids, Dr. David Lattimer, Rev. Dorothy Meadows, Paul, Jodi, Frank, Greg and Linda, and Sissy.  These all tutored, mentored, and coached me along in flight school.  They either pulled me to safety under His wings, when I was being too risky, or pushed me out to fly high when I needed that extra little shove.

~Can’t Fly into Flying

"One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman."  Simone de Beauvoir, 1949

         

            We’re mostly in a hurry.  Can’t wait till we’re allowed to date, get our driving permit, or graduate. 

We want it yesterday.  Not content to savor the moments, because there’s always something illusive calling from the distance. 

            Once, when trying to threaten my teenage daughter into obeying, I said, “If you don’t do it, I’m gonna knock you into next week.”  Very seriously she replied, “ Mom, I’ve already been there and back and it’s not what it’s all cracked up to be!”

So how do little girls grow up?

What kind of women should they want to be? 

Who are their role models, I wonder?  And

If they don’t have real ones, do they pick one from TV?

What if they’ve never heard of Jesus?

That he came to set men and women free?

That women were last at the Cross and first at the Tomb?

That in Christ there’s no male, female, Jew, nor Greek?

If only there were more older, godly, women

That had time to spend and wisdom to share?

It would surely change the outcome

Of how those little girls, blossoming teenagers, and young women would fare.

            We’re born with a broken wing…baggage…issues.  It’s that inevitable ability to make wrong choices, even if we’ve had the best this world offers in family, education, social status and money.  “For all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” Romans 3:23 NLT

We crash and burn time after time.  Yes, we’re capable of doing good, and boy do we try to religiously.  The take away, of our Greatest Grandparents’ choice to eat of the fruit of “The Tree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil,” is that it’s just easier to do the wrong.  Take the path of least resistance.

So, how do we break that cycle?  Get over the hurdle? Stop the downward spiral?  We’re in need:

• Of a biblical set of boundaries or directives.
• Of an understanding of consequences: “If…,” “then….”
• Of a compassionate environment offering accountability.

~Enter WINGS: Women in Need Growing Strong

“To you who fear My name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in His wings.  And you will go forth and grow up….” Malachi 4:2 KJV

          There’s something humiliating, and at the same time very liberating, about saying it.  “I’m needy!”  “I’m a  needy woman!”  It’s like having the courage to stand up in an AA meeting for the first time and say, “Hi, my name is _______.  I’m an alcoholic.”

            Recognizing our need is the first step to emotional and spiritual maturity.  It’s the first step to thinking-critically, problem-solving, and decision-making.  It is saying, “I can’t save myself.”  “I can’t do it alone.”

            It is also the first step to expressing hope.  “I can be free!”  “I will find help.”  Healing begins with vulnerability.

My first husband, Pastor Richard Oliver, and I had been married six years.  Our five year old Stephanie had just come through open-heart surgery.  I was surviving a nauseas nine month pregnancy when Richard started getting sick.  After eighteen months and no diagnosis, a surgeon began a series of surgeries that led to the removal of Richard’s complete stomach. 

I was trying hard…to keep Richard alive, to be a PTO mom for Stephanie, and to keep track of toddler MaryAnn.  I wasn’t sleeping.  I hurt all over.  One morning I just couldn’t get out of bed. 

This was after several grueling weeks of Jesus telling me, “Just move your leg over to the edge of the bed.  Now, let it fall to the floor…there you go!  Put one foot in front of the other.  That’s good.  I’ll lift your foot up.  Take a step.  Do that again.  Go over to the sink.  Turn on the faucet.  I’ll help you make the coffee.”

It took my OBGYN months to convince me that it wasn’t a sign of weakness to take an anti-depressant…and that if I didn’t, I would end up in a hospital.  The ladies in our church brought in meals every day for weeks.  They did our laundry and swept my dirty floors.

For six years, God’s people at the North Street Wesleyan Church, in Talladega, Alabama, carried us.  They carried us to the Father’s throne daily and every Monday night at our Prayer Cell.  They carried us financially.  For all six years, they paid Richard’s salary.  Most of the time, he could preach only on Sunday mornings, while sitting on a folding chair.  Somewhere along the way I realized that the surreal sensation of being carried was actually God’s wings sustaining my life. 

I remember the Lord talking back to me talking back to Him, “If you don’t let these ladies help you, you’re going to rob them of their blessing of obeying me.”  Pride melts when the Almighty puts it that way.  

On July 29, 1991, Richard courageously stepped over the threshold into Heaven.  Three weeks after his funeral, with Stephanie and MaryAnn, now 11 and 6, I started back at Circleville Bible College(now Ohio Christian University) to finish my Bachelor's Degree in Christian Ministry.  In the midst of great suffering, God was calling me to great ministry.  I was a truly a “woman in need growing strong.” 

It was during those years of grieving and growing that God birthed WINGS: Women In Need Growing Strong, in my heart.  There had to be a way to give women hope, help, healing and habits for a holy life.  WINGS began to take shape:

·        In 1993, the first WINGS Weekend was held in a local church at Galion, Ohio. 

·        In the late nineties, the first WINGS Discipleship Cell met, during the Sunday School hour, where I pastored in Lebanon, Pennsylvania.

·        Today, WINGS is “WINGS: Walk. Run. Soar!” and is expanding to become a lifecoaching business for individual women and a consulting and leadership training service for women's mentoring ministries.

~Safe Haven

Georgette was internally wounded.  La Nina did not have a proper sense of boundaries.  They both ended up in a sanctuary.  Now we’re not talking about women, but birds; and not a church, but a safe haven for fowl.

January 2, 2007, Reuters reported on the Raptor Trust, near the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge west of New York City.  Len Soucy, the founder, said that every bird has a story.  Impact with wires, windows, cars, bullets or poisoning to name a few.

In 2006, the center cared for over 3,500 birds.  Sixty percent healed and were returned to nature. Some who could never make it on the outside are permitted to live in the facilities open-air cages. “The sanctuary accepts hurt birds 24 hours a day. It has a small operating room equipped with an X-ray machine, gas for anaesthesia and a narrow operating table. Heated cages serve as intensive care units.” Georgette, a peregrine falcon, and La Nina, a barn owl, along with 60 – 70 other birds, showcase the Raptor Trust’s effectiveness to an estimated 40,000 visitors a year.

Women, too, need a safe haven.  A place that takes them just as they are and where people really do care. This place is the Body of Christ, the church, or an organization reaching women with the love of God.  A place where women can find restoration beneath His wings.

Under His wings I am safely abiding;
Though the night deepens and tempests are wild,
Still I can trust Him; I know He will keep me;
He has redeemed me, and I am His child.

Under His wings, what a refuge in sorrow!
How the heart yearningly turns to its rest!
Often when earth has no balm for my healing,
There I find comfort, and there I am blest.

Under His wings, O what precious enjoyment!
There will I hide till life's trials are over;
Sheltered, protected, no evil can harm me;
Resting in Jesus I'm safe evermore.

Refrain
Under His wings, under His wings,
Who from His love can sever?
Under His wings, my soul shall abide,
Safely abide forever.

                                                  William O. Cushing/Ira D. Sankey

1. ThinkExist.com, quotes about “wings.”