Selah2020: Pause and Reflect

[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 07/Aug/2022]

Have you felt tired lately? I think many of us have been feeling that way, perhaps because of Covid or another health problem, or because of stress over all the problems in the world, or ones much closer to home.

Earlier this year, a number of stresses and ongoing sleep problems left me feeling completely exhausted (and that was before I got Covid). To encourage myself I tried reciting aloud one of my favourite verses, Isaiah 40 v 31: “But those who trust in the Lord for help will find their strength renewed” (Good News Bible). Unfortunately, in my sleep deprived state, I heard myself saying: “But those who trust in the Lord for help will find their strength removed!” Clearly a Freudian slip reflecting how I felt at the time.

A verse that seemed more appropriate was Lamentations 3 v 18: “My strength has gone and so has my hope in the Lord” (New English Bible). The writer certainly had reason to feel that way. The Babylonians had invaded their country and subjected Jerusalem to an 18-month siege before finally capturing the city, destroying it and deporting most of the people to Babylon. Yet just a few verses later we read: “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness” (Lamentations 3 v 22, 23 RSV).

Much of my tiredness and stress is due to taking on burdens I was never meant to carry. A couple of weeks after the invasion of Ukraine I got to the point when the news was crushing me, making me lose the will to live. The answer was clear: having done all that was within my power to help, through prayer and giving, I needed to reduce my exposure to the news to the bare minimum and leave the situation in God’s hands.

More recently I have been stressed over a situation in my family which was beyond my control (and has now been resolved). I think it is burdens like these that Jesus was talking about when he said: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11 v 28 NIV).

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