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The easy yoke
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Second Week of Advent
Isaiah 40:28-31
God does not grow tired or weary. He increases the power of the weak. Young men stumble and fall, but those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. They will mount up on wings, like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk, and not faint!
I’m exhausted even as I type these words. How strange, to know their truth but feel nothing but a desire to close my eyes and sleep.
On other days when I’m rested, the world is my oyster. Shakespeare’s Falstaff first used this metaphor to describe the joy of digging for treasure in the world you’re given. As Falstaff might do, on those fine days I stride to the top of the hill and shout out greetings to all. Enthusiasm and peace join hands and dance a jig around my mind. All I can do is smile.
That’s the promise of Isaiah’s famous words. Wait on the Lord, get some sleep, don’t get ahead of God, live the Sabbath … and then all of you, men and women young and old, will renew your strength.
My left knee was twisted up pretty badly when I was 19. (Long story.) Now I’m 65. That knee is one of my weak links. It leads me into green pastures, but then it wants to rest. Wait! Let’s just sit down here for a minute. Take a tiny moment and notice what’s around you. Leave the weary, rushing, frantic world you have made for yourself. Leave it behind.
So … is that my knee talking? Is that God talking through my knee? I think maybe so. In the middle of the weariness, the exhaustion, I smell the breath of God, and it smells good. I breathe in the Holy Spirit. And in this sweet oxygen, smiling, I walk and I do not faint.
To think that the silver lining of every moment, exhausted or not, is God, Lord. You inhabit all my inner places, and surprise me when I take the time to go in there too. Let me climb on your back and take a nap. Let me ride with you to the edges of life, and look over. And live with you in the way everlasting.
http://www.christiancounselingservice.com/archived_devotions.php?article_id=1305
