The journey of a weary heart!

I love to travel. Give me five minutes and I can have my suitcase packed, be waiting while Jim fills the car with gas and I am on my way. There have been a few times when I actually left and wasn’t sure where I was going. A couple of those times have included farm stuff. Jim will say, “start off and I will let you know which field I’m in.” Those aren’t really journeys of a weary heart although a few times before cell phones when I went to a field and waited two hours, the journey became weary by the end.

No trip stands out in my heart more than Indpls about 10 years ago.  My nephew was in Memphis very ill. They called the rest of the family down. That included my niece’s husband who had stayed behind in Indpls with their four girls. The spouses were needing to get to Memphis. Oh, and there was a baby involved. I had talked to my sister, called a few other people and then called Jim asking him what he thought of my feeling I needed to go care for the girls. I drove in the yard, he took the car to get new tires (it’s a long 9 hour drive) and by the time I threw clothes in a suitcase and gave some instructions to kids, he was back and I was on my way. That nine-ish hour trip was a weary journey. I prayed and talked on the phone to friends while I drove. It seems that prayer and talking to friends belongs in the same sentence. Prayer is so much like talking to friends. James 2:23 reminds us that ‘”Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness”, and he was called God’s friend.’ A weary heart talks to a friend: I am a friend of God.

How do you talk to a friend? I talked to a friend most of the way home last night from Cowboy Church. I talked to a couple close friends at Cowboy Church. I call friends. I send friends notes: friends and talking go hand in hand. When my heart is weary and I have a long road ahead of me, it’s only natural to do two things. Call a friend and talk to God in prayer.

Many times I let things build up inside. When I finally blurt it out in the safety of a friend often their first words are, “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”  When I finally confess what I have been struggling with, (it’s no surprise to God) he is true to a friend’s  response. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

Yesterday’s sermon was all a bout being weary.  One statement made that resonated well in my heart was how we make the assumption that God is just as tired as we are. I don’t tire much, but when I do, I am exhausted. I put that frame of my expectations of God along with my abilities to deal with the moment.  Isaiah 40 reminds us that when we take off on the journey by ourselves, we get weary we stumble and we fall. When we let God help walk the journey, we walk, run and soar.  Simply allowing God to hear us out and use his vision instead of ours, the weary journey begins a tour de God.

Everyday we begin a journey. Some are fun. Some are anticipated. Some are surprising. Others are to be endured. Everyday we begin a journey. Even the exciting fun ones need to be prefaced in prayer, but especially, the journey of a weary heart. The journey of a weary heart begin in prayer.