If you really knew me, you would know that I love sleep more than a bear during hibernating season. So, this morning I when was more tired than I normally am, I REALLY had no desire to get out of bed. I worked a 13-hour day yesterday on top of having a bad head cold with clogged ears that caused everyone to sound like they were Charlie Brown’s school teacher. It was a fun day but I was exhausted once it was over. This morning I had to go to the dentist to get a cavity filled, which is always a good time, and my dentist kept trying to chat with me and ask me questions about my job. I felt like my brain was yelling at my mouth telling it to move faster and it just couldn’t!
Sometimes I wonder why I have mornings like this. Shouldn’t I be jumping for joy to get out of bed each morning since I have something that 95% of people in the Bay Area do not have: a relationship with Jesus?! Because I know that my life has purpose, I feel like I should be talking about Jesus all the time no matter how tired I am, especially to people like my dentist who do not know him. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. We don’t always feel the joy or excitement of our faith, but God can restore our joy and encourage us through Scripture and interactions with other people.
I praise the Lord for knowing that I needed a little encouragement! As I sat down in Starbucks today and opened up my laptop, a woman next to me said, “You know FCA?” (My laptop has a “Fellowship of Christian Athletes” background.) “I was in the FCA club at my school in college back in Virginia!” Then she briefly told me about her life and how excited she was to be learning more about the Lord deeply each day. Then she pointed to a sticker on her laptop that said “Jesus is Lord”. She gave me her card and said she wanted to get involved in the ministry of FCA. Even though my body was exhausted, my spirit felt refreshed by my new friend, because I got to celebrate Jesus with her and experience a little slice of Heaven just by having a conversation.
Romans 15 tells us that God gives endurance and encouragement through Scripture and that we ought to have a spirit of unity because of that. And we know, through Scripture and through this lady’s encouragement, that Jesus is Lord! So, I praise Him for this day that I can celebrate no matter how tired I am, and no matter what is going on around me. Our God is a God who never sleeps, never gets tired, never needs to hibernate like a bear (or like me), and never grows weary. He promises to give us the grace, endurance and encouragement to run this race we call life for, with, and through Him! I hope that you spend some time in Romans 15:1-13 today, and that you rest in the fact that you get to be in relationship with the God of the universe because of the fact that JESUS IS LORD!
Can I get an AMEN?!
Author: Whitney Elliott