… and not faint

(Seems Jonell and I are tracking along similar lines today.

Thanks for those words, Jonell, Good stuff.)

Isaiah 40.31 is a long-time favorite verse of many,

Those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;

they will run and not grow weary,

they will walk and not be faint.

I’m focusing on the last half of those lines these days. Not because life’s terrible —because it isn’t— but because there’s so much of it and it’s coming so fast.

This feels like when I was a kid and used to scream down a steep hill on my bike praying like crazy that I wouldn’t wipe out. It was a total rush but there was fear there. Genuine, honest-to-goodness fear. I’m not a kid, though. I’m almost fifty-one. I’m feeling the weight of a ton of responsibility and Old Man Time is tailgating me — and he’s got a lead foot.

I know, sometimes life is the furthest thing from flying. The walk feels like trudge. So slow there’s no breeze at all. Maybe that’s where you are right now. Either way, we need

º Renewed strength.

º Not growing weary.

º Not growing faint, or worse yet, fainting.

I’m reminding myself (like once an hour) my key … is hoping in the LORD.

-=-=-=-

On those days —through those seasons— where life’s a drink from a fire-hose

When you sleep because you must, not because you have time

When tackling the next task on the list is more self defense than conquest

And it all gets to be just a bit much

Remember others have been there before you (that’s what I’m trying to do).

I sincerely doubt that I’m going to be the first person God lets slip through His fingers.

Why are you downcast, O my soul?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

-=-=-=-

Day by day the LORD directs his love,

At night his song is with me—

a prayer to the God of my life.

(From Psalm 42.5,8)