(Almost, but not Quite) Running on Empty

Ugh. I needed to force myself to get started on the day. But with just five hours of sleep, I didn’t exactly feel ready to “carpe diem.” Still a sick boy awaited, ill with a high fever and vomiting for the third time in the past month or so, and five healthy ones who needed a teacher with a functioning brain. (Not to mention Kristen, home on Spring Break, and Andrew, expected to arrive tonight, and a patient husband, all of whom also prefer a mom/wife capable of meaningful interactions.) Life’s been exhausting lately, with the normal cares of life coupled with my siblings and I trying to help my parents deal with serious aging issues. I’ve even started randomly falling asleep while sitting on a couch, something I don’t ever remember doing before.

As I lay struggling with the bed magnet, the words to “How Firm a Foundation” ran through my head. Frustratingly, I couldn’t come up with all of the verses Tim and I had memorized years ago. After running downstairs to get breakfast on the way (granola, prepared last night, thankfully, and oatmeal), I quickly checked email and then looked up the missing words to that hymn. It turns out there are seven verses, not just the five we’d learned. And tucked into this glorious hymn was one stanza that I think the Lord had particularly wanted me to see this weary morning:

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said,
You, who unto Jesus for refuge have fled?

In every condition, in sickness, in health;
In poverty’s vale, or abounding in wealth;
At home and abroad, on the land, on the sea,
As thy days may demand, shall thy strength ever be.

Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,
For I am thy God and will still give thee aid;
I’ll strengthen and help thee, and cause thee to stand
Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.

When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;
For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.

When through fiery trials thy pathways shall lie,
My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.

Even down to old age all My people shall prove
My sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love;
And when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn,
Like lambs they shall still in My bosom be borne.

The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.

Overall maybe not as powerful as its sister stanza's, the second is the one I needed to read this morning. Hey - there was an allusion to the verse I named my blog for - Deuteronomy 33:25! Verse six, also, speaks to me more and more as the hoary hairs increase on my temple. Thank you, Lord, for this reminder that YOUR strength will be sufficient.