Weary or Soaring?

Weary is such a sad word. It is so much heavier than, say, tired. There is a sense of discouragement about weariness which, to me, doesn’t pertain to tiredness.

A new year. 2016. It is a year of hope, of promise. I am making Isaiah 40 my text for the year and my aim is to read it frequently and glean as much as I can from its encouraging words. 

This morning I read it. It opens on a gentle note. Comfort my people. It ends on an encouraging note. Those who hope in the Lord shall renew their strength, rising up like eagles, running without growing weary. 

That led me to Matthew 11:19. Jesus invites us to come to him, all who are weary and burdened. 

Do you fit that category? I have had a very busy, sometimes stressful, always demanding 6 weeks. They followed on from a year punctuated by a couple of trips to help my mother, both of which were demanding and often stressful. I am tired for sure, but I am not weary because I have seen the truth of that verse from Isaiah. I have put my hope in the Lord, especially during these last six weeks, and I have known his strength flowing through me. I have seen his blessings open up before my eyes. He has been doing more than I could have asked or imagined.

He enabled us to sort and clear my mother’s home of 63 years, in two weeks. He enabled us to repaint most of the interior of the house – three bedrooms, a long hallway, bathroom, living/dining area. He helped us get the carpets lifted to reveal the beautiful hardwood floors. He gave us strength to hold a garage sale. He brought the right buyer for Mom’s piano. We managed to dispose of the rest through a charity pick-up.

Through my cousin, he provided a realtor we liked, and who has found a potential buyer. Mom and I were able to pray through the house, the home we loved for 63 years, in which I grew up, played, where our wedding reception took place and where my father died. We asked God that another family would come in and sense his peace and be enabled to live and love and laugh in that home as we did. We asked that the home would bless the next family.

The potential buyer is buying it for his newly married daughter and husband. I am sure there will be a family in there, enjoying that home as we did.

I am tired. But I am not weary, as long as I keep coming to Jesus, putting my hope in him and receiving from him strength for each new moment, for each new day. 

This year, 2016, is the year of the eagle. A year of reaching new heights, carried up by the thermals provided by the Lord, in whom is all my hope and trust. 

Happy new year. And a heartfelt thank you to those whose prayers have fuelled those thermals these last weeks. God bless you.

Spinning Plates

Spinning Plates

The trick is to keep smiling and keep the patter coming without losing the momentum on any one spin, so that none of the plates drops.

Well, actually I’ve never tried spinning plates, but when I’ve seen one of the entertainers who can do such a thing – I guess maybe it’s usually been a clown in a circus – it seems that it’s the momentum of the spin and the tilt and balance on the pole which keeps the plates moving. When they stop moving, they drop and roll away.

I don’t think I’m the only one to feel as if I’m spinning plates just now. Some of them I just can’t let drop. Like the lovely new granddaughter who I got to hold again today. Like taking time to pray and read and listen. That one takes a bit of effort to maintain momentum. It is so easily overlooked. Commitments to family. Skyping my mother every day. Writing commissions.

Then there is the nitty gritty of everyday life which I can’t let drop. The day job. The housework. The commitments to others through church and Bible study. The garden. The shopping. 

Then there are the projects I want to keep spinning. Creative writing projects. Cross-stitch. Reading interesting novels and books. Writing blogs. Learning a new language. Taking walks.

And in the midst of all the spinning plates, sometimes other clowns suddenly run out of the shadows and cast another one my way which I have no option but to try to catch on a pole and keep spinning. Visitors drop in. Neighbours need a hand. The telephone rings, or an email needs answering.

Come to me, Jesus said, if you’re tired and weary and fearful of dropping one of those spinning plates. I will refresh you and call time out.

Well, he doesn’t say it exactly like that, but that’s the gist. So I’m giving the plates to him and having a rest. Whew.

Dragging

       

Everybody’s dragging. For those with school connections, it’s nearing the end and no doubt the echoes of ‘sprint!’ aren’t helping. Sometimes you’re just too tired to sprint. Even putting one foot in front of the other seems challenging.

And yet. We are about to open the doors of a local food bank to help provide meals for those in crisis, and we have been blessed with over forty volunteers to man it three times a week, and the food collection is phenomenal. So many people want to help. Despite their own fatigue. There’s just something awful about thinking there may be a family in a kitchen near you whose cupboards are bare.

Most of us like to do things to help others. It makes us feel affirmed and justifies our own existence in a way. 

But we are human beings, not human doings. We don’t need to justify ourselves, because Jesus has done that for us. Sometimes we just need to take time to sit and contemplate. To accept refreshment from our Lord, who gives the water of life that springs up inside of us then and provides restorative refreshment for others. 

If we don’t pause by the well occasionally, we miss that crucial breather. We may muster up the strength to keep going, but our spirits gradually dry out, dessicate, and we find we have nothing to refresh anyone else with, because we are dehydrated ourselves.

Seek the Lord. Call on him. There is peace like a river, and glorious life. And water in abundance so that you will never thirst again, as long as you continue to draw from Jesus.