Isaiah 40:28-31
28 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
29 He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
31 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.

As I think about another season of fall outreach to the incoming students at Cal, I’m thankful for this passage to our church and to me personally as we just sent off a team to plant a church in Austin led by Manny/Sunny, whom I love and cherish. They have been two of the key people who have gone through all the ups and downs of life and ministry together with me and Ed for past 19 years. As I think about future teams that we will be sending out, it’s quite overwhelming because I feel stretched in many respects already. I think the hardest thing about saying good bye to people for the sake of missions is releasing the emotional strength that they provided for me. Ministry can be very emotionally draining at times, and people who understand your heart and are in it with you are a huge source of strength.

I thought about what I am afraid of and I realized that I am afraid of becoming weary and weak with too many responsibilities and not enough people who really share my heart in this ministry. But this text says that “He gives strength to the weary and increase the power of the weak.” This text also says that “those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.” This means that if I want to experience God giving me strength and increasing power in my life, I would have to be in a position where I am weary and weak. If I want to be renewed in my strength, I would have to be in a position where I would have nothing else to place my hope in except for God. The world tells us that becoming weary and weak is bad. But this is not what the Bible says. This text is saying that if I grow weak and weary, I am in the best position to experience God’s strength and power.

There is so much talk in Christian circles about avoiding burn out. I agree that we should be wise so that we can serve God for the long haul, but I think if we are not careful, we can go overboard with staying within what’s manageable. Is the solution to crawl and not run? Is the solution to just slow down and not do much? No, God wants me to run. He wants me to deny myself and choose the narrow road not because he is into seeing me suffer but because he is confident that he can give me the strength and power that I need. All for what? So that people can hear the Gospel and be saved. It’s because life is short, death is certain, eternity is long, and heaven and hell are real. He wants to see me hope in him. He wants to see me renewed in my strength. I’m excited for the Austin team as they are poised to hope in Him and experience his strength and power. I’m excited for everyone back at home who are taking the challenge to grow up and fill the void that the Austin team has left. I’m excited about going back to college ministry this fall in addition to the ever increasing responsibilities. I don’t want to budget everything just right so that I’m never in a position to actually hope in God and God alone. I want to be able to say at the end of the year that I experienced Isaiah 40:28-31 personally in my life.