Encouragement For The Exhausted
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There is no shortage of anxiety-inducing bad news these days. There are ongoing injustices the world over. An epic epidemic persists all around us. Personal disappointment, despair, and tragedy of all kinds stack up with no partiality. If we’re honest, we can acknowledge that exhaustion is no respecter of persons.
GRAVITY THAT NEVER LETS UP
On some level, every person is dealing with the daunting reality that the world keeps turning and life goes on regardless of how hard we get knocked down. Some have hit rock bottom already. Others are in denial and trying to hold it together either for themselves or for someone else. Still others are insisting that everyone else should get it together and be better.
…every person is dealing with the daunting reality that the world keeps turning and life goes on regardless of how hard we get knocked down.
Where is the encouragement, the Good News, the compassion?
Before I offer a counter punch to bad news, let’s double down on the reality of rampant exhaustion. You may not feel exhausted or like you’re denying exhaustion. You may instead be operating in a mode of functional exhaustion that looks like noble busyness or is actually a real form of slavery.
Wherever you are, whatever is being expected of you - whether by you or others - whatever has happened to you or is being done to you or by you, there is Good News. Better news than what you have been told or let yourself imagine.
Wherever you are, whatever is being expected of you - whether by you or others - whatever has happened to you or is being done to you or by you, there is Good News.
LOVE THAT NEVER LETS GO
The word of God over every person is and will never cease to be “love.” When the Word of God speaks, breath goes out and gives life. You have been made in and out of love. You are loved regardless of whatever you think worthiness is or isn’t. You are loved whether you gain or lose everything.
The word and will of God over every person is and will never cease to be “love.”
Truly, you are held by a love that will never let you go. This isn’t a nice thing to say or an empty hallmark sentiment. It’s the truest truth and the fabric of reality itself. This is the reality that transcends every circumstance in our broken world.
God is not fretting about the messes we make or the messes that are made of us. In fact, the entire Bible assumes and spotlights the mess for all its worth. The point of this exposure is that God’s promise cannot be undone and he will never abandon his people.
This includes you. Faith is an invitation to believe that even if we lose everything and everyone dear to us, even our own lives, God is the God whose love gives life and undoes death. Let yourself be heartened and your anxieties and fears contradicted.
…God is the God whose love gives life and undoes death.
NOTHING CAN SEPARATE
All too often when reading and interpreting Scripture, we allow our limitations to dilute the scandalous sayings we find there. We essentially water down things we can’t absorb so that we can wrap our minds around them. This is lamentable.
“...neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39, NRSV).
Answer this: what else is there that can separate you or anyone else from the love of God in Christ?? Is there anything at all?
…what else is there that can separate you or anyone else from the love of God in Christ??
No. Nothing. This is Good News. Does it erase today’s disappointment or yesterday’s pain or the anxiety about what may or may not come tomorrow? No, it in fact does not. But, it does awaken us to a hope that transcends all we know, even if we can’t see it (Romans 8:22-25).
A SAVIOR WHO LOSES NOTHING
Hear these ancient words of Jesus, who has been given all authority in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18) and who God gave “the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11, NRSV):
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away; for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day (John 6:35-40, NRSV).
…this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. - Jesus
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