God.

We are tired and weary.
We are stumbling and falling.

We finish each day, each week, and find it easy to doze off.
We finish each shift, each project, and find it impossible to stop. To stop our minds, at least.

We are aware of the virus as a concept, and even more as a disruption to each part of our life.
We are aware of economic trends, and even more of the things we can’t buy that we need, the jobs in jeopardy.
We are aware of the value of physical distance as an appropriate response, and even more as a destroyer of relationships, of emotional health.

We are tired and we are weary.

You know the word “weary”, God. Isaiah says you will not grow weary.

And yet.

Instead of telling us we need to be strong or brave or better,
You, Jesus, asked for a drink in the noonday sun.
You, Jesus, fell asleep and were unawakened by a storm.
You, Jesus, worked and walked and taught and grew tired.
You put on the bodies we inhabit, the bodies you created, and you understand that we are limited, we grow tired, we lack strength.

And you tell us that you will give us strength.
You will increase our power.
You will renew our strength.

And so I ask today that you will help us hope in you.
The one who knows everything, including our frailness,
who feels everything, including our fatigue,
who forgives everything, including our fogginess and frustration.

God, today, right now, renew our hope and our strength.

Through Christ our Lord
Amen.

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Reflecting on Isaiah 40:21-31