Can I blame age for my lack of ambition? The body isn’t as strong now so that is a good excuse for those activities that require physical strength. I’d rather nap than exercise, watch a game on television than do the dishes, wear wrinkled clothes than iron them. Many times during the day I find myself doing chores out of sheer will power than any desire. Most of the time, once I get started it isn’t as challenging as my thoughts made it.
This stage, if it is a stage, is new for me. I’ve always been an eager worker. One summer I dug a hillside beside our house and made it a series of steps. This was hard physical work and turned out well. I’ve made king-size quilts and now view that similar to constructing a four-man tent. This decline in ambition bothers me, not the aging part but the attitude of resentment toward doing what needs to be done, or should be done.
It hits spiritual responsibilities too. No one person can do all that the Bible calls Christians to do, but I’m often shirking even those things that God puts on my plate. I’m too tired or I have easier tasks and put the more important at the bottom of the list.
A few principles come to mind. One is when Moses led a battle. His army won as long as he held up his hands…
But Moses’ hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. (Exodus 17:12)When his hands dropped, the army started to lose, but as others supported their leader, they won the battle. This says much about the importance of Christian fellowship and the need to be supported. Don’t be a loner, and I tend to like be alone, but this is not always the best choice.
In another OT narrative, David was being attacked by his son. The son’s advisor said…
I will come upon him while he is weary and discouraged and throw him into a panic, and all the people who are with him will flee. I will strike down only the king, (2 Samuel 17:2)This is a spiritual warfare principle: the enemy goes after God’s people when we get weary and discouraged. Sometimes more sleep is the issue, yet in this story God sent another advisor with a different plan that sounded good but led to David’s victory.
I need to be alert. Fatigue and feeling discouraged is to be vulnerable, yet the answer is not always in being rested — it is in trusting God to get me where I need to be and with the energy I need to have, just as the psalmist did:
O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. (Psalm 63:1)One friend says the next verses are about spiritual weariness, not physical, yet it seems to me they are partners that require the same solution:
Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:28–31)God also says: “I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish.” (Jeremiah 31:25) and “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9) and “Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.” (Hebrews 12:3)
PRAY: Jesus, forgive me for turning my mind toward how I feel instead of toward You. Your grace is sufficient. I may get tired, but You are enough and You always supply whatever I need for whatever You want me to be and do. Give me wisdom so I don’t try to do too much for me, but rely on You for whatever you put on my to-do list.
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