Somedays I wake up plumb exhausted. I mean, before I’ve even rolled out of bed, I
can feel it. The truth is, it isn’t
simply body-tired…it’s that my heart is tired.
My soul is weary.
Maybe you’ve been here too?
Soul Weary: a
condition or state of being, often temporal but at times, reoccurring. Of or related to heavy hearts; shoulders not
broad enough to bear up under.
No matter how many times I find myself ‘soul weary’ I’m
still not an expert. In fact, the more
I’ve visited this place the more acutely aware I’ve become to just how much I don’t know and can’t do. I don’t have all
the answers. I need only to find my way
to the place where my soul can rest.
{{{Enter Chaos, Mayhem, and Pandemonium}}}
When this gang of three strikes as they sometimes do, they
turn people and places and circumstances on their head. Upside down and inside
out. Disorder. Insecurity.
Pain. The unknown.
When you hear the hearts of the broken threadbare folks,
the soul weary, and the disenfranchised…? When you are these people? You want to mend and be mended.
And here comes the restlessness. Where, from a place of misguided kindness, we’re
pulled to do more, have more, be more, know more, see more, get more, schedule
more, mend more, heal more. More as a way to satisfy the pain
and begin the mend.
Restlessness wants nothing more than to set us in motion. In
this place of vague urgency, when we’re thinking with our emotions and under
pressure, we’re led to believe that only action can relieve a weary soul, when
really, only God can.
Today is just a random Wednesday -- it
seems as good a day as any to tell you that sometimes {pretty much always} rest in the waiting takes courage. Serious courage. Like David-sized courage in the face of
Goliath. Sometimes the greatest courage
is to trust enough – to faith enough –
to let go. If you were to assume the
obedient life requires you to be in a constant state of restless action, I
think you’d be wrong.
Not alone – just wrong.
Because we all have this tendency to want to
fix whatever’s in upheaval, patch the threadbare, and foresee the future…this so
we can prep more to have things just
right when the time is right. And we
think we’re simply being obedient. But
no one’s brokenness is ever stitched up according to our timeline. And have we even stopped to pray? Have we thought that maybe, just maybe God
knew what He was saying when He gave us the exhortation, be still? God’s provisions
seem to unfold just in time for us to surrender in obedience to His time.
Resting in the waiting is an act of genuine submission. In whatever we’re facing, whatever our
Goliath is…there’s a peace that comes with recognizing God is in control. He is supremely sovereign. And yes, there are still moments for mending
but there is also a season for sitting.
Rest. Simply to be still; to be humble;
and to wait. He brings us to the end of ourselves,
precisely where He wants us to be…a place where He alone is able to reveal and lead
and guide. Where there's no question about who gets the credit.
And what of this
waiting? It’s just a simple offering of
time – time to be still; time to pray – tied up with a measure of patience and smidgen
of grace. Because none of us has ever
cured a weary soul. We’re merely vessels
serving at the feet of the King.
From the Fullness of His Grace,
Lacey
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