Hope in the Lord


By Bishop Brian Maas

"But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength."  Isaiah 40:31



Doesn’t renewed strength sound fantastic right about now? I don’t know about you, but I’m tired. I’m tired of managing the nonstop flood of information that’s been flowing for weeks. I’m tired of Zoom meetings (SO tired of Zoom meetings!). I’m tired of trying to keep track of my face mask and maintaining physical distance and washing my hands and using sanitizer and remembering not to shake hands or hug people I’m so glad to see. I’m tired of not knowing what’s coming next or what counsel to give or what sources of information are right or how best to balance competing needs and wants or how forceful to be or how ignorant I feel in the face of the unknown …
I’m tired.
And I’m guessing you can relate.

Then I remember those to whom Isaiah’s words were first addressed 2500 years ago. “Tired” doesn’t begin to describe what they were experiencing. They had been in exile in Babylon for 70 years, many treated like residents of work camps, the only living memories of their homeland were memories of defeat and destruction. They were tired in body, mind, heart, and soul. They were on the threshold of returning to Israel but it seemed an impossible distance away. They didn’t know if they had strength even for the journey, let alone the work of rebuilding what lay at the other end.

Then the prophet speaks, calling them to remember just Who it is that’s calling them to return—God Almighty, the Holy One of Israel, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, the One who delivered the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt and brought them into the Promised Land. God who is powerful, God who is trustworthy, God who feels humans’ pain, God who changes things and brings life from death.

Trusting in that God—our God—the exiles in Babylon made that journey. Some may have mistakenly thought they were returning to their past, but they quickly learned they were launching into their future. It was their hope in God that renewed their strength, again and again, as they made that journey into the unknown, as they built the future to which God called them. They were tired, but God got them there.
I am tired. But I am hopeful.
When I recall this Word, I feel renewed.
I pray you may know this truth as well: “those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.”

We are on a journey through much that is unknown. Our assumption is that we’ll soon be “going back” to what we knew before.
But we are not going back to what was. We are journeying into a future.
There’s a lot that’s unknown. The past will be reflected in it, but it will be a new future.
It will be God’s future—the God in Whom we dare to hope; and Who in that hope renews our strength.
And I’m not so tired anymore.

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