Or: Lord, you expect me to do what?

I am learning a painful lesson. As background, my husband Jim typically is one to creatively use any tool to make work easier. As a result, he manages to get more done more quickly and with less effort. By comparison, I’ve always been one to power through in most any situation, and I’ve been fortunate to have the physical health and endurance to do what I needed to do. You might say he works smarter, and I work harder. Not sure why that is, but it just is, at least until now. About six weeks ago I fell and dislocated my shoulder, breaking a bone in the process. It’s taken me all that time to get most of my range of motion back, and now I am working on my strength. Because I don’t want to slow down, I’m taking some cues from Jim on working smarter. For example, I am using a wagon to haul dirt for my garden rather than just dragging a bag of dirt around the yard.

The fallacy to my approach is that, as strong and/or stubborn as I am, there are going to be limits to what I can do, with or without a bad shoulder. I’ll give you another example. Years ago I went with our church youth group on a working mission trip. One of my team’s projects was to replace the valley on a woman’s roof. (Yes, I was the team lead; yes, I told them I didn’t know anything about construction! And no, I didn’t know what a roof valley was, much less how to replace it.) I was leading a team of teenagers who knew less than I did, and were sufficiently intimidated at this point to admit it. I was holding back the tears as I looked at this woman’s roof and our pile of tools and roofing materials without a clue what to do, feeling like a failure before we had even started.

A little later on that first morning, one of the roaming construction managers stopped at our worksite, and through God’s grace he actually had a construction background and was local (we were in North Carolina). Just so you know, most of the construction managers were not local, and many of them didn’t have much more construction experience than I did. We were very fortunate to have him assigned to us. He looked at our dilemma and advised that we start on another part of our assignment (insulating the floor, which is another story all together). When our team came back bright and early the next morning, the roofing job was already completed! Because the construction manager was local to the area, he was able to call a roofing buddy to come over and complete this job before he went to work at his real job. I had been so upset because I was not able to complete an assignment, but at that moment I realized that in my inadequacy, God was able to work a miracle and accomplish what I could not do on my own.

All of my misery was because of my own pride in my ability, my strength. Always before I had been able to power through on my own strength. In this case, God provided the solution, and accomplished what I could have never done on my own.

It’s like so many stories in the Bible when God’s people faced insurmountable odds. Times like when Joshua was instructed to take the city of Jericho, one of the most heavily fortified cities in the then-known world. Or when David faced the giant Goliath, or Saul, or a myriad of other enemies. Or when Elijah was hiding from the most wicked Queen Jezebel. Or when Esther, a young Jewish woman in Persia, was the only hope against looming genocide of her people.  And the list goes on.

One of my favorite verses is Joshua 1:9 – “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” These were the words of God to Joshua as he was leading his people against Jericho. God had also spoken these words to Moses, and Moses to Joshua. David repeated them to Solomon when he gave him the instructions to build the Temple. When the nation of Judah faced Assyria, King Hezekiah encouraged his people with these words, taken from 2 Chronicles 32:6-8; 21-22:

He appointed military officers over the people and assembled them before him in the square at the city gate and encouraged them with these words:  “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged because of the king of Assyria and the vast army with him, for there is a greater power with us than with him. With him is only the arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles.” And the people gained confidence from what Hezekiah the king of Judah said…. And the Lord sent an angel, who annihilated all the fighting men and the commanders and officers in the camp of the Assyrian king….So the Lord saved Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib king of Assyria and from the hand of all others. He took care of them on every side.

When Paul was imprisoned toward the end of his life, he wrote this to the Christians in Philippi: “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13).

I pray that when you face seemingly insurmountable challenges, you will lean on God and rely on His strength. I pray that you will remember and be encouraged by these words: “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

 “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty” (Zechariah 4:6).

Our God is powerful. He is faithful. He loves you.

In Christ,

Judy