I'm running my first half-marathon this coming Saturday in Savannah. Over the course of the last few weeks' and the weekend runs that quite literally stretched me out to be able to do this daunting thing, I've felt many times that I didn't have strength to go on. When my mind had basically given up on me. Voices would tell me, "Whoa, Chris, I think you're done." And then when that other voice inside says, "Well, that's a shame because you have 6 more miles to go", that is the point when despair ensues, and my physical and emotional resources feel depleted. Where do I get the strength?
Where do we find the strength to keep going in life? When we wake up and are already exhausted for what is coming up later in the day? Hard decisions to make about money. Complex and strained relational or marital conflicts that always spin around the same issue and never break through to something new. The unexpected question or need that rises which becomes the proverbial straw that breaks the camel's back. Anger. Frustration. Boredom. Where do we find the strength to keep going?
What are human beings? What are we for? What is an approach to life that can't get swamped by, to use a recent title in the multiplexes, our terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days?
Ezekiel 36 and 37 provide us with the approach we need. First, we are overwhelmed. Redemption and peace don't come from climbing atop the heap of our own messy lives. They come from a God who comes down into them. In Ezekiel 36:26, God shows us how this works, "A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh." In this world, we work to make things better. We get a progress report and we get to progressin'. But sin has wrecked us. No progress can be made. Our overwhelmed heart must be replaced with a new heart, a heart of flesh that is alive and responsive to God. Where do we get our strength? First, we must acknowledge our need. We are overwhelmed. We are broken. We can experience joy in the midst of 'crazy busy' lives by getting realistic about where we expect relief to come from - God alone.
Second, Ezekiel 36 and 37 show us why God is trustworthy for this: he is a creator. Genesis 2:7 says "then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being." Psalm 139:13-15 says: "For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth." These verses fill us with the wonder of a God who can make something from nothing. But can God bring the dead to life? Can God redeem what has failed? Can God take something broken and make something even better than the original? "Can these bones live?" In chapter 37, the bones begin to rattle, they come together, sinews and skin grow. Though there is no breath, God calls Ezekiel to call for breath to fill the bones. And it happens. Re-creation is happening before our eyes. Then, God says: "Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.'...Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves...I will put my spirit within you and you shall live..." (Ezekiel 37:11-14)
We are led deep inside the secret of creation itself - the secret of cartilage, of bones, and joints, of teeth, and of the skin, and all of it is alive. We are led to a God who is far more and far greater than the brokenness we've known and experienced. Where does our strength come from? It comes from the wonder and joy in a God who is not you or me, who is free, and lovely, and beautiful, who fulfills these and every promise in Jesus Christ, raising him from the dead, and allowing us to participate in Christ's new life. He has conquered our sin and death sentence, and delivered us to an unconquerable hope of new life after death.
When we feel behind before the day has even begun, when we feel defeated by unexpected interruptions, we can find a place to be still with God, to breathe, and to remember that all of this, life itself, the way our bodies work, our memories, love of God and neighbor, the gift of promised redemption in Christ, the modest life of our little planet is all a gift and is quite remarkable.
Whether on my run this weekend, or in the midst of exhausting, overwhelming life, may we know the God who only begins to work when we've got nothing left.
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