“For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.” Jeremiah 31:25

Fully Satisfied

Walk His Way Revisited

I was dead weary when I set out to drive several hours to visit my aging mother. Not only was it the end of a long work week, but several upcoming big events in my life, on top of looming deadlines on some projects, and planned visits with some difficult people, exhausted me. Oh yes—and I hadn’t slept well all week. And—I mustn’t forget that “discussion” I had with my husband before leaving for work that morning, which wiped me out more than all the rest combined.

I berated myself. “You have everything to be thankful for. Your heart should be glad. You still have your mother. You have a few hours to yourself in the car. You have a weekend away from normal chores.” I deserved the rebuke I got from my husband, but had been too stubborn to admit it at the time. Physical and emotional weariness has a way of shutting us down to common sense, to the things we know so well and can easily preach to others. “You’re shuffling along when you should be running with gladness.”

I knew what I needed to do: stop for coffee. (I admit, to my shame, it was my first response.)

An unexpected thing happened over the next few hours. First, it began to rain at Pollard Flat and continued until past Weed. This was a wipers-on-high-speed kind of rain (though it didn’t do much to clean the bugs off my windshield. Dead bugs seem to turn to glue.)

As I drove out from under the storm, cloud stacks and formations brought beauty to the now-blue skies. The sun turned the droplets into prisms of glittering color. I felt a smile form on my formerly blank expression. Sun and shadows chased each other across green hillsides; the scene was so starkly beautiful that some drivers pulled off the freeway and stood outside their cars, taking pictures with their cell phones. Every turn of the road held a new visual delight.

I truly felt I had been visited by the beauty of the Lord, and I was fully satisfied.

He knew how to satiate my weary soul. He didn’t revive me by convincing me I’d been right in my stance against my husband. He didn’t take away my deadlines. He didn’t let me take a nap to restore my sleep loss. He didn’t give me answers to dilemmas imbedded in the upcoming events. He didn’t cancel my planned engagements with the difficult people.

He revived me by a simple visitation of Himself. And He did it without me asking. Frankly, I didn’t think of asking. We assume the only way out is to get rid of the problems; His ways are higher than ours.

I was left with a new outlook: with His help, I can do this thing. I can live this life He has given me. His Holy Spirit presence is all that is required.

Visit us, Father. You are all we need. In Jesus’ name, Amen.