Ready to Drop
Tired, exhausted, weary–perhaps you have used one of these words recently to describe how you are feeling. Perhaps you are like me and you’ve just got “the sits.” Maybe you are “beat” or “dog-tired.” You could be “worn out” or “ready to drop.” Perhaps you “can’t put one foot in front of the other” or are “too pooped to pop.”
Stephen of the St. Sabas monastery near the Dead Sea wrote a hymn about weariness and hope in the 700s. Minister J. M. Neal translated and paraphrased it from the Greek 1100 years later. Here are a few verses:
Art thou weary, art thou languid,
Art thou sore distressed?
“Come to Me,” saith One, “and coming,
Be at rest.”
If I still hold closely to Him,
What hath He at last?
Sorrow vanquished, labor ended,
Jordan passed.
If I ask Him to receive me,
Will He say me nay?
Not till earth and not till Heaven
Pass away.
Finding, following, keeping, struggling,
Is He sure to bless?
Saints, apostles, prophets, martyrs,
Answer, Yes!
Like Isaiah, Stephen had learned the answer to weariness.
Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The Everlasting God, the Lord,
the Creator of the ends of the earth
Does not become weary or tired.
His understanding is inscrutable.
He gives strength to the weary,
And to him who lacks might
He increases power.
Though youths grow weary and tired,
And vigorous young men stumble badly,
Yet those who wait for the Lord
Will gain new strength;
They will mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired,
They will walk and not become weary.
Isaiah 40: 28-31
Whether your weariness is the “it’s April and I can’t wait for the school year to be over” kind or the heart-wrenching “I can’t believe this is happening to me” kind, Jesus stands ready to give you rest.
“Come to Me,
all who are weary and heavy-laden,
and I will give you rest.”
Matthew 11:28, NASB
