Verse of the Day for October 10

This is the verse people put on gym walls, and they usually stop at the eagles. Read the whole line and notice the order it goes in.

Mount up with wings. Run. Walk. That is descending order, and it is descending on purpose. If you were writing an inspirational poster you would end on the eagles.

Isaiah ends on walking, and he attaches the strangest promise to it: and not faint. Not shall run and not be weary — that comes earlier. The final clause is about the person who is no longer soaring or running, who is just putting one foot down after the other.

That is the hardest of the three and he knows it. Anyone can be carried through a crisis on adrenaline. Sustaining an unremarkable walk through year four of something is a different order of grace.

The eagles are for the day it lifts. The walking is for all the other days, and the promise covers those too.

If today is not a soaring day, you have not fallen out of the verse. You have reached the part of it that was written for you.

Walking counts.