Well this week, I was thinking about what to write and Wendy, my wife, was like, “What are you going through? Use that, because it will be you.” Then I thought, “What am I going through, that people want to read about?”
Back pain… That’s it. I’m talking about back pain. (not really, just using it)
So this weekend, at some point, I pulled/strained/did something that made my back angry at me, and it has been aggravating. Combine that with all the other stressors of life, at one point today while sitting at my desk at work, I was thinking I would quit now just to go home and lay down. That’s when I thought of this song we recently did at Journey:
In our church’s current series “The Journey” we are discussing a lot of facets of life walking with Christ. The one I want to talk about right now is feeling worn. Just as I cannot quit my job to get some rest because I must provide for my family, we cannot quit our Christian walk because we have been beaten up.
When I listen to the song “Worn” by Tenth Avenue North, I listen to the song one of two different ways: 1) a broken person wanting redemption to win in their life, to transform it and 2) a Christian that’s worn out and realizes they are just sinners trying to make things happen themselves, but they are seeking God for rest and for Him to do His work through them. The latter usually wins out for me, because I’m a Christian living a busy life that often gets distracted and hardly ever takes a Sabbath. (See Mark’s post last week for a great post on getting rest.)
When annoyances in life distract us, some of us (read: me) focus on the wrong things. We forget to do the following:
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
– Philippians 4:8 (ESV)
Let us learn to focus on these things. When life does not seem to be going our way, when our prayers are wearing thin, let heaven flood our eyes. When we are worn, let us remember, all that was dead inside has been reborn.
Richard Jacobs
Worship Pastor