Hope For the Tired and Weary

Tired, grumpy, precious kids in bed – check. 

Grimy, soup-stained, now clean laundry put away (again) –
check. 

Stained walls, dented floors, but toys put away house tidied
(for the millionth time) – check.

I crept quietly down the hall and snuggled into my burgundy chair.  As I opened my Bible to read before
bed, I found on those pages something that brought a firework display of impressiveness
right into my room.

 The words
popped off the page as my eyes relayed the message to my heart…the passage was
talking about being TIRED and WEARY. 
What better words could I have chosen to truly describe how I felt in that
moment?  It took rereading it a few
times for it to sink in. 

But I was confused. 
Why would God, through His prophet Isaiah, use two words to describe
what seemed like the same thing?

This question made me pause and think – the hard kind of
thinking that forces me to scratch through the easy surface answers and look
deeper.  Here’s what I found…tired
and weary, although it described how I felt, are not the same thing. 

Tired is being fatigued, often to the point of exhaustion –
yep, my hand was in the air, waving strong; I could relate to that
feeling.  But what about weary?

Weary is a little different, because its description is not
having any more resource of patience or tolerance left – okay; now my feet were
joining my hands in the air to validate my experience with that one.

So, what next?  I
just get to slap on a sparkly badge that says, “Tired and Weary Mom” and leave
it at that?

No, God always offers hope to our problems!  So I went back to the text that jumped
off the page on me and read further…

“The Lord is the everlasting God…He will
not grow TIRED or WEARY…He gives strength to the WEARY and increases the power
of the weak.  Even youths grow
TIRED and WEARY and young men (and young moms) stumble and fall (yes we do);
BUT (drum roll please) 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

As I leaned back against the side of my chair, I
sighed.  I’d been doing it
again.  I’d been exerting great
“Kristen strength-effort” and asking God to bless me, instead of HOPING in Him
and asking for His strength. 

When we HOPE – action verb here – in the Lord, we are not
rushing madly to accomplish everything on our checklist.  We’re choosing to put on God those
things that are overwhelming us. 

Over and over again, I realize that God wants to be included
in all the details – HE is the one who makes the difference when kids are
bickering, when pots are boiling over and when husbands arrive home late.

I love the quote by G.K. Chesterton that encourages, “As
long as matters are really hopeful, hope is a mere flattery or platitude.  It is only when everything is hopeless
that hope begins to be a strength.”

Say it out loud (it’s okay if our kids think we’re crazy,
what better example could we give them?), “God, I am feeling overwhelmed by this
______ right now, but I am choosing to hope in you.  Show me how to soar as Your Word has promised.”

We’re immersed in a culture that shouts at us to stand up
tall and be independent.  Work
things out for ourselves.  Be
strong on our own two feet.  BUT
God calls us to turn to Him, acknowledge our need for Him and let Him be strong
on our behalf.  So the next time
you feel TIRED (at the point of exhaustion) and WEARY (no resource for patience
left), turn to God, who never experiences those emotions and put your hope on the
solid rock.