"Weariness, or Worthiness?" by Randal Nicholas February 5, 2012
One of my obligations to my home denomination, the Presbyterian Church, (USA) is to serve on the personnel committee of the Presbytery - the equivalent to our Association. We oversee the executive presbyter (same as Kathy Lawes), the office staff, and the employees at the Stronghold Camp. The Presbytery's office is located at the camp, down near Oregon, but not in the "castle" which makes the camp noteworthy to many of us.
As the folks who approve the hiring and firing of camp employees, last spring we ended up with two hourly employees to help the full-time staff around the camp. One was a vigorous young man who had just graduated from high school. The other was a retired farmer with a heart condition. Because of budget cuts, we could only employ one addition hourly worker. Guess which one accomplished the most work each day.
Yes, the farmer. The young man was willing enough, but the farmer, even with his heart problem, always got more done. One reason was that he just knew how to do things. He’d had a lot of experience from running his farm, and he didn’t need much direction. He also knew how to maintain his energy. He’d have to rest occasionally, but when he was on his feet, he did what needed to be done with a minimum of exertion so that he wasn’t expending all his energy in a burst.
On one occasion, during the previous year, there was a new camp sign to erect. The young man put his strong back into the job and dug for all he was worth. When he got tired, the farmer took his turn on the post-hole digger as well, but when they finished, the young man was all used up for the day. The farmer was planning to go help his son with the evening milking of the cows. The difference was in technique - slowly and steady wins the race, Mr. Tortoise.
Now hear the closing verses of Isaiah 40:
Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted;
but those 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."
Of course, those verses are not simply a commentary on the energy level of different generations. Isaiah 40-55 addresses the people of Judah in exile from their homeland, living as captives in Babylonia. They don’t know it yet, but their years of exile are soon to end. But at the time this is written, the people are still captive, so the prophet comes to announce to the people that God is about to deliver them.
Isaiah 40:21-31 is part of a longer speech in which the prophet seeks to rehabilitate the exiles’ concept of God. When the Babylonians had defeated Judah, many of the Jews concluded that the gods of Babylonia were stronger than the God of Judah. So now, the prophet reminds the people of the power of God Almighty, using rhetorical questions and dramatic comparisons. The prophet’s argument reaches its high point in these words:
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.
And then he goes on to indicate that not only is God able to rescue them, but he is also willing to do so. And that’s where the prophet begins talking about God’s giving strength to the faint and powerless, so that those who wait on the Lord — who rely on him — will have a sustaining vigor that exceeds even that of the young and naturally strong.
In the context of the passage, the exiles are surely the ones who are faint and powerless. They have no say-so over what happens to them. But they shouldn’t surrender to despair because God’s both able and willing to help them. For their part, they need to wait on the Lord, and when they do, says the prophet,
they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
they shall walk and not faint.
We, of course, are not in the sandals of the exiles. But we, too, have a journey though life that can be exhausting and sapping, for there’s no shortage of things that wear us down.
For starters, there are simply the demands of each day. Once, at a previous church, I remember gathering at the church for a council meeting. It was 7 p.m., and one of the women looked at another woman and said to her, “I see you’re wearing your ‘evening face.’” Everyone present knew immediately what that meant. By the time we get to midlife, the juice that enables us to get things done tends to run out before the hours of the day do.
But there are larger issues that sap our energy, too. If we pay attention to the news, we can hardly keep a bounce in our step. Closer to home, there is stuff that undermines our vigor as well. We have problems at work, difficulties in our relationships, worries about our children, unwelcome interruptions in our plans and unexpected health difficulties.
Even our trips to church sometimes add to the loads we carry. More than one observer has described church as the place where you go to be told week after week that you are not doing enough for God and that you have got to do more — and be given precious little instruction for how to do that. That’s tiring!
The Isaiah passage is addressed to people who have been worn down. To them the prophet advises, “Wait for the LORD.” Those who wait for the Lord will “not be weary.” In other words, they’ll be “unweary.” That’s not a dictionary word, but it captures what this prophecy is saying. It is not saying, “Just trust God and you’ll be supercharged in the race of life.” On the contrary, the image is more like that of the old farmer at the church camp who goes along, keeping energy expenditure to the minimum needed to keep moving and get the job done. He’s not weary but neither is he fresh and buoyant. He’s the unweary runner.
But what does it mean to wait on the Lord? It’s a way of describing the realm in which the meaning of our lives and the resources for the journey are found. That realm is contained within the boundaries established by the Bible, the church and the wide scope of the Christian faith.
EXAMPLE: If you are struggling with the meaning of your life, you could select an answer from the broad field of philosophy. Among them are 1) that there’s a God but he doesn’t supply meaning, 2) that there’s no God and life has no meaning, or 3) that meaning comes from God, even if we cannot see it.
Three options, but if you have committed yourself to living in the realm defined by the Bible, the church and the Christian faith, then you have to eliminate options 1 and 2. Even if you cannot sense any meaning to your life, you have to conclude that there’s meaning nonetheless, and that it comes from God. Accepting that, then, you can go on, operating on the assumption that God knows the meaning of your life even if you do not, and therefore you have reason to continue the journey. You may not be an energetic runner, but at least you are unweary.
EXAMPLE: Suppose you have a serious problem that you could probably get out of if you dump the blame on someone else. But then you consider the realm you have accepted as someone who waits on the Lord. You know that a foundational principle of that realm is “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Once you remember that, you know that dumping the blame on another person is not an option. It’s from a different realm, one you don’t accept.
The waiting-on-God realm is a broad one. Within its boundaries are the helpful activities of many professions. So if you’re sick, you don’t hesitate to go to the doctor. But if, after examining you, the doctor says you have a terminal illness and have only a few weeks to live, you can walk out of that office knowing that the ultimate answer to your illness lies with God.
That doesn’t mean you are expecting or demanding a healing miracle, but rather that because you wait on the Lord, no matter what happens, your life is in his hands, and they’re hands bearing great love. That conviction makes you an unweary runner. You move from weariness to worthiness.
In short, waiting on the Lord means carrying on with the tasks at hand in a state of trust. When we do that, the continuing on itself can become the medium through which God strengthens us.
Friends, the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is for us all. We may arrive at the end of any given day with an evening face, but by waiting on the Lord, we can be unweary runners, people with the resources for dealing with what comes up during the day, and we will arrive at the end of our life’s journey with the energy to continue on into God’s great eternity. Alleluia! Amen.
