Well, this week flew by, and Friday was half gone before I realized I’d still not written a devotional. So, here I am, at my bed time (I’m basically a grandpa now), trying to churn out something worthwhile. Typing like someone’s tied marionette strings to my fingers, and won’t let me get the words out except by some intense strain of will.

These past couple weeks have been intensely challenging. Death in the family, serious health crises with close loved ones, relational stresses, the list grows longer until it becomes comical.

I’m not saying that for sympathy. Just an explanation of why I’m tired.

Creative energy is different from the energy needed to chop wood. Emotional stresses, anxiety, and fear devour creative energy quicker than a monkey eats a banana. And continuing to create in such a state for very long becomes self-cannibalistic. You begin to devour your own emotions.

So, I just want to thank God for his faithfulness in difficult times like this.

On days when we don’t know what to think — when we’re too tired to think — he’s here. He invites us to lean into him, because he will be our strength.

Have you ever just stopped to realize how incredible that is?

There’s no God like that. No person in the world so faithful, so capable, so compassionate.

Praise God, he’s alive, and he’s alive inside us, and we are his, and he has promised that he is ours.

What a wonder.

PRAYER

Thank you, Jesus, for loving me. Thank you for being everything I can’t be. For your strength when I’m weak. For your confidence when I feel afraid. For your comfort when I feel pain. For your compassion when I mourn. Because you wept. You’re right here in the middle of the pain with me. And you hold my hand every time, and gently pull me through it. To the other side, where the Son always rises–and Death has lost its sting.

DIG DEEPER

Nope. Too tired. Unless it means sleep. Hey, that’s not a bad idea… 😉