Isaiah 40:21-31

And You Think You’re Having a Bad Day!

Have you ever had one of those days? You know, one of those days when nothing goes right? From beginning to end everything seems to be against you. Every stoplight is red and every item on your to do list takes forever to accomplish. If you have arthritis or hay fever or any other trouble, it always flares up on that day. Well, when you do, and you start feeling sorry for yourself, consider the following TRUE story … I read it on the Internet!:

A man was working on his motorcycle on his patio. His wife was in the kitchen. The man was racing the engine on the motorcycle when it accidentally slipped into gear. The man, still holding onto the
handlebars, was dragged through the glass patio doors and along with the motorcycle dumped onto the floor inside the house.

The wife, hearing the crash, ran into the dining room and found her husband lying on the floor, cut and bleeding, the motorcycle lying next to him, and the shattered patio door.

The wife ran to the phone, called 911, and summoned an ambulance. Because they lived on a fairly steep hill, the wife went down the several flights of stairs to the street to lead the paramedics up to where her husband lay.

After the ambulance arrived and transported the man to the hospital, the wife uprighted the motorcycle and pushed it back outside.

Seeing that gas was spilled on the floor, the wife got some paper towels, blotted up the gasoline, and threw the towels in the toilet. The man was treated and released to come home.

Upon arriving home, he looked at the shattered patio door and the damage done to his motorcycle and became despondent. So he went to the bathroom, sat down on the toilet and began to smoke a cigarette.

After finishing his cigarette, he flipped it between his legs into the toilet bowl. The wife, who was in the kitchen, heard a loud explosion and her husband screaming. She ran into the bathroom and found her husband lying on the floor. His trousers had been blown away and he was suffering burns on his bottom, the back of his legs, and his groin.

The wife again ran to the phone, once again dialed 911, and requested an ambulance. The very same paramedic crew was dispatched and the wife met them once again on the street. The paramedics went up the stairs, loaded the husband onto a stretcher and began carrying him back down to the street.

While they were going down the stairs, accompanied by the wife, one of the paramedics asked her how the husband had burned himself. She told them and the paramedics started laughing so hard, that one of them slipped and tipped over the stretcher, dumping the husband out. He fell down the remaining stairs and broke his arm.

Now that’s what I call a bad day!

But it could be worse: Imagine you’re a seal … Following the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska many of the seals, who were coated with a slick greasy oil,were painstakingly and at great cost, cleaned up to be re-released back into the ocean.

At a special ceremony, honoring just such an occasion, two of the most expensively saved seals were released amid cheers and applause from onlookers. A minute later, in full view, a killer whale ate them both. So sad!

That’s bad – but how about this? Iraqi terrorist, Khay Rahnajet, didn’t pay enough postage on a letter bomb. It came back with “return to sender” stamped on it. Forgetting it was the bomb, he opened it and was blown to bits. Yikes. 

Truth is we all have bad days now and again.  Probably not as bad as Khay had, but even the best of us can have one of “those days” when nothing seems to go right.

Sometimes, though, one of those days can spill over into the next day. Soon you are having one of those weeks, then one of those months, and maybe even one of those years. When that happens, there seems to be no relief. You wonder if there is a light at the end of this long dark tunnel. And it is so easy to lose hope.

Israel had had one of those days. In fact they had a lot of them. Not only did they have one of those days, months, and years. They had several of those generations. It was the worst time in Israel’s history, a time called the Babylonian Exile - the low point in all of Israel’s history.

They were beginning to doubt that God cared for them. They desperately needed assurance that God was still in charge and that he cared about their plight. Isaiah, the great prophet of the exile, was trying to give them encouragement and so, very eloquently, the prophet Isaiah said these words:

“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary. And to him who lacks might he increases power.

“Though youths grow weary and tired, And vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not faint.”

Those are encouraging words to those of us who are weary.  Maybe you have experienced a great loss in your life, or lost your job, or lost a loved one, or heard some terrible news.

Maybe you are having a hard time seeing what the point of it all is.  You’re losing hope.  Joy is harder and harder to find.  You are finding it harder and harder to remember the goals and the dreams that God has placed in your heart.  Maybe you are feeling besieged from all sides and find it that you just can’t seem to get it together?

If that is you (and more often than not lately, that has been me!), then Isaiah’s message should give us hope.  But it is a strange message that may need some fleshing out.

See, most of us, at first glance, would think that Isaiah has the passage all turned around in his ascending order of things: first you soar, then you run, and finally you are able to stand and not faint! What? His developmental scheme seems all screwed up. Don’t we first walk, then run, then finally soar like an eagle?

But, Isaiah knew God and he knew life. I believe that he actually set down the promises of God in the correct order, for, you see, the greatest power and the greatest gift is to keep us going when life has slowed us to a walk and we’re almost ready to cave in and quit.

But let’s examine them in order. First, there is the promise that God’s help can take the form of ecstasy, enabling us to mount up and soar like eagles.

Jesus felt it at the moment when he rode the donkey into Jerusalem as the crowds shouted “Hosanna to the Son of David!”

The women felt it when they gazed into the empty tomb. You may have felt it when you proposed to your wife or husband to be (and they said YES!).

Those times, though,  are most likely the exception, rather than the rule, so, Isaiah describes a second way God helps us: “They shall run and not be weary.” God gives us strength for activism. God gives us the inspiration to act, to reach out and do a task or solve a problem.

We can witness the indefatigable spirit of Jesus as he healed, touched, and spoke to countless thousands of people.

All of us have prayed to God and found the motivation and power to get busy with life. We’ve overcome loneliness through finding purpose in terms of new friends; we’ve discovered the commitment to get up and go to church; walk in CROP walks; build Habitat for Humanity homes; and stand up for justice.

We’ve found the motivation to run an extra lap, jump a little higher, and pound a little harder. Thank God for the power to run and not be weary, to institute effective church programs and activities.

But, Isaiah is right. There’s more power available to us than soaring and running. There are some problems, some deficiencies that cannot be attacked by force or energy. Sometimes we can’t soar and we can’t run.

Fortunately there is another way in which God can help us. “They shall walk and not faint.” Now when we seek the spectacular that may not sound like much. Who wants to walk, to barely creep along inch by inch, barely above the threshold of existence, not fainting? That doesn’t sound like much of a spiritual experience, does it?

 But, most of our decisions in life are made when there is no occasion to soar and no place to run, and when all we can do is trudge along and hear that help is available.

When there is a power that enables us to walk and not faint, that is, indeed, good news. It ministers to our greatest difficulty: being able to endure, to be patient, and not to give way to giving up and heading in another direction.

From the flight to Egypt as a baby, to his night in Gethsemane, to his trial before Herod, to his march with the cross to his crucifixion, the greatest power available to Jesus was the power to hang in there, to walk and not faint, to cling to his situation and not abandon his task.

But how do we hang in there?  What can we do to hold on?  Today’s Gospel reading gives us a clue.  In it we see Jesus on the Sabbath doing many things - he has already attended worship, cast out demons, healed the sick, ministered to the masses …It was a full day.  Very full.  Very busy.  No fainting allowed.

Then we read that the very next morning, very early on that morning - while it was still dark,  Jesus got up, left the house and went to a solitary place, a quiet place, where he prayed. 

That was Jesus’ MO.  Whenever he felt his energy drained – he prayed. Always we find Jesus leaving his disciples for a time and going to a quiet place by himself for a talk with God, for a time of waiting upon the Lord, for a time of developing his relationship – and maintaining his relationship with God - for a time of strengthening – a time of remembering - a time of being “re-attached” to the Father.  And THAT’S the key!

So, how about us?   Do we remember where there is fuel for our tanks, food for our journey, supplies for our task, recovery for our soul, hope for hearts, and direction for our days? 

Do we turn aside from the hustle and bustle - the fret and the worry – and allow God to inhabit us - to fill us - to restore us - to guide us? 

The message of God for us today, as it was to the Israelites in the time of Isaiah, is precisely this:

It is a call to a people who have lost hope - to take heart. It is a call to them (and us) to wait upon God, to listen to God - as well as to speak to God, so God can raise us up, so God can restore us to health.

Why did Jesus go the synagogue on the Sabbath Day, week in and week out? Why did he continually turn aside during his busy days of doing God’s work, of preaching, and go to a quiet place and pray? Why did he withdraw from his disciples and from the crowds to go up on the mountainsides - or into garden groves to wait upon God?

Might I suggest to you that he did this because that is what helped him keep on track.  Might I suggest to you that he did this because that is what gave him strength.   Might I suggest to you that he did this because without doing it - he could not have done all he did.

God loves each and every one of us. God will redeem us. God will raise us up. And when we allow God’s love to rise up within us, when we allow God to speak to us - instead just talking at him all the time, when we take time aside - God moves in us and does in us (and for us) that which we cannot do on our own.

That is the secret – it isn’t always easy for it is when we are most stressed that we feel like we have the least time for God … but, in truth, that is just when we need most to make time for the God who is always there for us … wanting to fly, to run, yes even to walk with us.

May I listen to my own words this morning. 

AMEN!