English Standard Version
27 Why do you say, O Jacob,
and speak, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
and my right is disregarded by my God”?
28 Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
29 He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
30 Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.
*************
I wish we could all find a way to know this to be true, in the depths of our hearts, each and every day, every hour of our lives -- if we trust in ourselves and rely upon ourselves for strength, we can sprint for a while, but even in the prime of our lives, we will grow weary with fatigue from the race. It will exhaust us. When I was in my prime, I did several Olympic triathlons, and despite being in the best shape of my life, after I'd been moving for 3 hours, I was exhausted. There was nothing left.
If, however, we place our trust in God, we'll discover that our joy in God is an unending well. We shall run the race that is set before us, and we will not grow weary, even though the shadows of our days will lengthen and our bodies will grow frail and our minds won't be as sharp as they once were. The faithfulness of God, who is faithful even when we are not, will renew us, call us forward, deeper into discipleship, until we are at a point where we can confidently step through the threshold of death and discover there is even more wealth beyond the grave. We will discover that there is not sleep for us, but rest.
So may we pour ourselves into our relationship with God, discovering that his mercies are new every morning, that there is strength for the day, there is sustenance when we are hungry, there is peace when we are anxious.
I remember reading this standing beside a grave in California when my uncle passed away. I'll always associate this verse with him. His strength has been renewed in ways I cannot wrap my feeble mind around. As he so beautifully wrote
Love is more excellent than wine
There are many flowers that await me over the ridge
No comments:
Post a Comment