From Waiting to Strength

Notes from the Pastor…

When I was a kid, I considered Sunday mornings holy for irreligious reasons.  The Dallas Morning News would be tossed before I got out of my batman pajamas, and I would be instructed for yet another week not to open the paper until we returned from church.  The smell of pot roast would greet us as we entered our Waxahachie home, but no matter my physical hunger, I had a sports hunger that needed immediate satisfaction.  The Texas Rangers were something of a demigod to this ten year old.  Before lunch was served I could tell you Jose Canseco’s placement on the American League RBI and Home Run top ten,  I would memorize Kenny Rodgers’ ERA, and all my emotion would pour out in hope that the Rangers could make up the 8 games they were behind the division leader Seattle Mariners in August.

At some point, childhood fantasies of the big leagues are grown out of, and teenagers turn to the worries of high school.  Nonetheless, I think I stopped cheering for the Texas Rangers because I was tired of their perpetual loser status; I could not wait for success any longer, I gave up.

Waiting for too long can result in giving up, and on a much higher, holier level, we may be tempted to give up on God.  The Prophet Isaiah said, “Even youths grow tired and weary, and young people stumble and fall.” Life’s journey takes us through tough times where we lose all ability to cheer for God; where we grow tired of the perpetual physical and/or emotional defeats; where we cannot wait any longer and giving up seems routine.  Yet the prophet says, “Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength.”

So what is the lesson here?  Don’t give up!  In good times and bad, we must wait on the Lord, for “He gives strength to the weary and power to the weak.”

Grace,
Pastor Ryan