New Strength for Week Two
We are in week two of this New Year–week two of resolutions and diets, week two of hope and reassurance. Week 2.
Full Disclosure:
I am on day 12 of a 21 day juice fast. That’s right; I haven’t used my chompers for 12 whole days. I started three days before the new year because I wanted to get the three day detox out of the way and feel better on the first day of 2017. I’m so glad I did too, because I was on week two while everyone was enjoying the hopeful bliss that is week 1. It was an encouragement to me. Now, I get to return the favor and encourage you for the not-to-be-underestimated-week 2 lull.
In week 2, very subtly, hope is given limitation. Discipline dies a little and reality sets in. And this is true for the second week of anything.
Think about it. If you’ve ever been a new parent, that first week with your baby is just about the closest thing to heaven. It’s all endorphins, excitement and comes with all the help you need at the hospital, and at home. But at some point during week 2, the hormones wear off, no one is sleeping, and you realize you can’t possibly live the rest of your life like this, so you call your mom.
Is Week 2 hitting you the same way?
Week 2 sneaked up on me and punched me in the gut.
Week 2 gave me limits.
Week 2 showed me reality.
Week 2 had me crying in the corner.
Week 2 had me yelling at my kids in the middle of Costco: No, you cannot have that, and if you ask me for one more thing you will go sit in the car! We are all detox-ing from all the sugar and screen time. YOU’RE NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO WANTS A COOKIE!
Week 2 is also when I began to create a map to these dreams and plans that were in my hands. I started to focus on logistics and schedules. And it’s while I was looking at these things that I started to say, ‘Ya know, that may not happen this year. Maybe that’s 2018 thing.’
WHAT?!
It’s only week 2 and I’ve already given an entire year of my life away?! I’ve already settled?! I’ve already erased dreams from the chalkboard! I’ve already decided what plans I should hold back from Him. And worse, I started to put limits on the plans He has for me. I started moving through each one of these dreams and plans, lining them up and presenting them to Him, like He’s a CEO instead of my Savior. I was committing an action plan to Him instead of my heart.
Oh, me of little hope.
I had weakened my resolve (however brief) in week 2 and in turn, I had forgotten the truth: Jesus has made a provision for whatever week I’m in. He’s a new-day-everyday- God. He is Hope. He has no limitation. He commands the hands of the clock.
Whether I’m weary in week 2 or week 52, He has provided all that I need through Jesus to do the impossible things that he’s downloading to me. I should already know this because who I am, and the family that I have, is a testament to how God does impossible things. I needed to be reminded it was true here too.
I went to His Word so I could lay down the lie and pick up the Truth. While I was worshiping my God of Hope He whispered to me from the book of John. It was in the first chapter, verse 23 where John the Baptist was explaining who he was to some of the Priests. He repeats the words of the Prophet Isaiah, found in Chapter 40, verse 3, and says, I am “the voice of someone shouting, ‘Clear the way through the wilderness for the Lord!”
The words of the prophet came to fruition through John the Baptist. And they were meant for us too. We are meant to shout and share this Good News that the Lord is come, to shout and not be afraid.
Week 2 had me thinking of all the reasons I am not equipped to “shout”.
Week 2 had me feeling like I couldn’t shout any louder than I already am.
Week 2 had me afraid of what I might have to “shout” next.
Week 2 had me believing that my voice didn’t matter anyway.
Week 2 had me growing weary for what lies ahead, for the plans God has given me.
I read all the way through this beautiful chapter in Isaiah, and was reminded of the Truth that I had so quickly forgotten by Week 2.
Isaiah 40:28-31 {Emphasis added}
Have you never heard?
Have you never understood?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
The Creator of all the earth.
He never grows weak or weary.
No one can measure the depths of his understanding.
He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless.
Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion.
BUT THOSE WHO TRUST IN THE LORD WILL FIND NEW STRENGTH.
THEY WILL SOAR HIGH ON WINGS LIKE EAGLES.
THEY WILL RUN AND NOT GROW WEARY. (even in flip flops)
THEY WILL WALK AND NOT FAINT.
And, for me He was also saying:
You will shout and not get hoarse.
You will soar high above the wilderness and shout from this new place.
You will not grow weary or faint because you Trust in me, and I do impossible, big things (like get you through a 21 day Juice fasts).
I can’t fathom all that He will do in 2017. I think that’s the point. It seems too much for me because it requires His new strength and His depth of understanding, not mine. So I will try to remember again, what I’ve said before about all of these plans:
Not my will, but yours be done.