It was a beautiful cool fall morning so I went for a run and
as I was rounding the corner into the subdivision, I could hear jingling next
to me through my headphones blaring praise and worship music. I turned to see my dog following me on my
run. Historically she can’t do much more
than 3 miles; most of the time, even that is a struggle and I was set out for
4. She is slightly out of shape. As we
ran, she struggled a bit and would roll around in a ditch to cool off. Unfortunately there wasn’t much moisture for
her other than the morning dew. At about
3 ½ miles I could tell she couldn’t take much more without a break and some
water. So I veered off to head toward the pond.
As we headed down the small path, she kept stopping along the way to lay
in the muddy ditch. There in the weeds
and muck she seemed happy. I kept
calling to her though as the huge, beautiful pond was only 10 steps away. She got out and almost made it to the pond
before veering off for comfort and missing the bigger picture. She laid down again in the muck and tall
grass with big weeds blocking her view from the paradise just beyond. I just couldn’t understand why she wouldn’t
take the next 3 steps to the clean, beautiful refreshment of the big pond. It is there I felt God. I took my phone out to take a picture of
this.
How often do we lose sight of the forest for the trees when
we are in a struggle (whether financially, spiritually, health, loved ones,
work)? We are weighted down by the
troubles of this world and our burden becomes too much to bear; we cannot take
another step on our own we give up. We
can barely call out, “This is good God, that’s all the strength I have, I can’t
keep going. This mud and muck is enough.”
We are happy with what we can see with our very human sight, not knowing that
if we fully trusted God, there is so much more that lays ahead. How often in life when obstacles get in our
way do we lay down in our weakness and try to be content in staying there
without seeking God’s will or God’s
strength to get us to that next place He has called. Like Bella and like the Israelites I think we
know of God’s promises, but we easily forget his faithfulness when we cannot
see beyond our current circumstances. The weeds to Bella were like the giants
in the Promised Land to the Israelites.
It was hard for her to see beyond them to the greatness that was just
beyond. She was too tired to care, too
tired to move one step further; she was out of her own strength. Thankfully,
God promises over and over, verse after verse in the bible that not in our
Strength but in His. He has so much more
for us. Isaiah 40:31 states, “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.”
God never asks us to keep going in our strength. That old saying, “The
Lord will never give your more than you can handle,” bothers me. Where is that found in the Bible? God will
give us more than we can handle or we may never seek him. Sometimes it’s
exactly what He has to use to change and shift our stubborn hearts. He promises His strength, we need only ask and
believe. Realize that we are totally and completely
dependent on his strength. The
revelations were straight from God this morning, just what I needed to
hear. Maybe what some of you need to
hear as well? When he leads us on a
journey, even when it gets hard, he will renew our strength to see it
through. His power is made perfect in our
weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). God never
promises that we will not have trouble in this life. In fact Jesus states in John 26:33 “In the
world, you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world.”
When he calls us, we need to act obediently, trusting that
what he has in store for us in better than what we could have ever
imagined. “For my plans are not your plans
declare the Lord, neither are your ways my ways.” (Isaiah 55:8) Life will throw
us curve balls, beautiful endings can start with horrible beginnings, things
God calls us to, can seem nearly if not completely impossible. But that is the absolutely amazing thing
about God and his promises. “I can do
all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). I just hated to see Bella struggling and overheating
when relief was steps away, much like I would believe God would hate to see his
children suffering and settling for much less than he had planned for
them. For most of the time His plans are
not only to bring us closer to Him, but also those around us can learn much
from our journey and those we will meet in the future. God is glorified in our journey when we let
him strengthen us. Our stories of His
strength overcoming our obstacles are treasures to be shared with others, not
only to remind ourselves of the times God was faithful in the past but to help
others through their journeys as well.
