published by Dylan Harper, November 22, 2019
There used be a time when I wished the days were longer and nights were shorter.
Do you remember those days?
Today, I still wish the days were longer, but I also wish the nights were longer too!
“Why God?! Why can’t I have both?!?”
Rarely does a day go by anymore where I don’t crawl into bed at night exhausted, wishing that I still had energy left in the tank to maybe do this or that.
It feels as though each day and each night are getting shorter and shorter. I’m constantly wishing I had one or two more hours to finish this or accomplish that. Surely, I can’t be the only one who feels like time itself is collapsing all around us?
When I was a kid, 24 hours often felt like an eternity.
Now I’m thirty-five, and 24 hours feels like a blink of an eye.
I’ve heard it said that God is not bound by time and that’s often why ‘God’s timing’ is always the best, but also the hardest to abide by, because it’s His time and not our own.
But if you’re like me and often feel tired, you too might wonder, “am I doing something wrong? Am I not living according to God’s will for my life? If I was, wouldn’t I be at peace and have my tank full all the time?”
Well isn’t it Isaiah who tell us that,
He (God) gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
Isaiah 40:29
Sounds like a sweet deal to me.
I’m weary. I’m weak. Lord give me strength!
The prophet continues,
Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;
Isaiah 40:30
Well, doesn’t really add up to my experience as a youth, although I can recall having the freedom to sleep until noon if I needed to. That probably helped, but perhaps the prophet is right.
But then Isaiah says this,
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 40:31
I’ve got hope, or at least I think I do?!
Maybe my hope has been in the wrong place.
I ‘hope’ that I can stretch my time each day. I ‘hope’ that I can get 10 hours of work done in an 8-hour work day. I ‘hope’ that I can get 8 hours of sleep between midnight and 6 in the morning.
I think my ‘hope’ is perhaps falling in the wrong place.
The prophet Isaiah makes it clear though: ‘hope in the LORD’.
He doesn’t say hope for this or hope for that.
He says to have hope in only one thing. God!
As I finish writing this, and as you finish reading this, I promised myself I would keep it short and sweet, because time is of the essence…and so, may we, together, begin by trying to resist this tiredness with our hope in God.
Hope that we are living according to His will. Hope that He is leading us, guiding us, strengthening us, and empowering us with exactly what we need when we need it. Hope that He is glorified in all that we do that.
With hope like that, I suppose if we are tired, well maybe we just need to prioritize our lives better and get to bed earlier. Personally, I’m not sure I need a prophet to tell me that! Hoping for a more efficient workday or better night’s rest isn’t what God necessarily wants. He didn’t design us to hope like that.
God designed us for His glory. God wants our attention, our focus, our worship, and our hope – hope that He is what we live for and why we live for it, and through that, hope will be alive!
With a hope like this, and with priorities like that, maybe just maybe, we won’t crawl into bed each night tired, but instead, crawl into bed each night fulfilled by our day, and hopeful for what God has in store tomorrow.
Stay hopeful my friend, and receive the rest you need.
CONTRIBUTOR ~ Dylan Harper
HARP & STONES 