Need Energy?
I can still vividly remember the first time that I had an energy drink years ago. I was young, tired, and had a drive ahead of me that was several hours on my own through the mountains of British Columbia. The views and terrain on a normal day would have been captivating enough that I would have been able to stay alert and focused. Due to my tiredness, I decided that the best course of action was to purchase an “energy” drink to renew my lagging energy. If it kept me awake, it would be worthwhile. I drank the small bottle of “energy” and waited a few minutes, but to my dismay it did not have the instantaneous effect the commercials and movies had led me to anticipate. I assumed that right away I would be energized, perked up, and ready to roll. So, I continued driving. A few kilometres down the road, I realized that I was speeding… really speeding. I was also doing something that I had not done before: I was reading all the road signs that I passed with a pirate-style accent, and saying “Yarrr" a lot. That was not one of the warnings of possible sideaffects on the label! To add to the weirdness, my heart was racing, and I was starting to get nervous about what I was feeling inside my body. I immediately pulled over, took a minute to focus, ate a snack, and then returned to my journey. For the next few hours I certainly had a higher level of energy and focus about my driving experience. That is, until the energy wore off, and all of a sudden I was exhausted and couldn’t proceed at all. I had to pull over again, and this time I needed to sleep for a while. The downside of the borrowed energy was an energy crash that left me worse off than I was before.
Are you feeling weary today?
Where do you go when you need a boost of energy or renewed strength? There are many things that we do or places that we go to try to recharge our batteries, or to get a quick burst of energy in order to minimize the deep feelings of tired and weariness. Renewed strength, energy, and capacity do not just happen. A solid night’s sleep, or some flavourful energy concoction cannot impart renewal that is sustained and ongoing.
“Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;
but 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.”
Isaiah 40:28-31
Based on this scripture, in order to experience renewal, we need to choose to put our hope in the Lord and keep it there. Not just pray that we hope in the Lord and ask for that hope to be real and actualized, but rather to place the entirety of our hope in the Lord as our “Plan A,” and then to leave our hope in His hands. Our tendency though is to get nervous, unsettled, uncertain, and to try to take it back and put our eggs in multiple baskets. But Isaiah says that those who choose to put their hope in the Lord will have their strength renewed. This is not of their own power or willful choice to be renewed, but rather as they choose to sit with the Lord and be with Him, they will find that their strength is renewed by Him and in Him as they are with Him.
To those who put their hope in the Lord, he will renew their strength. To put your hope in something or someone is not a temporary solution… at least not in this context. To put your hope in something is to enter into and lay our right to controlling the outcomes down at the feet of Jesus. It is choosing to come under His lordship and covering, entrusting your energy and renewal into His hands and capacity.
We all put our hope in various people, things, products and plans. When we put our hope in the Lord, and stay with Him, we allow Him to strengthen us and impart to us what He carries within Him. He is more than enough, and what He offers will not only renew us, but also has the ability, when trusted, to sustain that renewal in an ongoing and life-changing way. The Lord does not grow tired or weary, and to those who are tired and weary He offers strength and renewal of the soul to not just give you an energy burst, but to actually renew your strength and fill you with what He carries inside of Him: a hopeful, energized, renewed strength that actually offers more than you had before and will sustain you and empower you through the trials and challenges that are still to come down the road of life.
If you are interested in talking to one of us about where you are at right now, or perhaps you are feeling stuck in the weariness and weight of life, click the “connect with us” button to send us an email and we would love to connect with you to talk more about this.
