Holy Spirit of God, help me wait on you to renew my strength…

 
Isaiah 40: 25-31

 
Society tempts us to think that there are limitless ways to renew our strength. Diet, exercise, cardio workouts, supplements and medications, programs and projects all promise ‘renewal’ of youthful strength and unlimited energy. It can become exhausting, just planning our days to maximize health, comfort and securities. God calls us to a different kind of renewal. During Advent especially, specifically during the December doldrums born of half-light and freezing temperatures, God incarnate in the person of a child waiting to be born encourages us to wait… on the Lord … and so to renew our strength. Even the best diets and most robust exercise programs do not claim to help one ‘rise up on wings, like eagles’. Only peaceful waiting for the strong up-drafts of Grace can do that. Supplements and medications would be facing endless lawsuits if they were to claim that their ‘patients’ would be able to run, and dance and sing without weariness – yet those who spend time in the early hours of a day waiting on the Lord can navigate and persevere through any kinds of storms and troubles that a day can bring. Programs and projects, though they drive us to walk in marathon demonstrations or to write wordy tomes on a computer, cannot guarantee that we will not faint from sheer exhaustion – but when we wait with patient hearts and listening ears to the Lord, then we can ‘walk’ through any kind of journey with Christ Jesus.  Will I continually try new ways to develop my own strength or will I lean on the Holy Spirit of God depending on his boundless power to renew our strength? Holy Spirit of God, help me to wait on you to renew my strength. 
 
Happy are those … whose delight is in the law of the Lord…they are like streams planted by streams of water, that yield their fruit in its season.  (Psalm 1:1,2)
 
Contemplation is nothing else but a secret, peaceful and loving infusion of God which, if admitted will set the soul on fire with the spirit of love.
St John of the Cross.
 
Watch “You Are Mine” , David Haas.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14pPevY5sd8
 
Soli ad gloriam Dei
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