Sagging skin and brittle bones

You're all I want in heaven!
You're all I want on earth!
When my skin sags and my bones get brittle,
God is rock-firm and faithful. - Psalm 73:25-26 (The Message)

So, I slept on a heating pad last night. After Saturday's race, it seems my back and neck took the brunt of the abuse, not my legs. Lately, I have had stiff necks, sore backs, and when I get up in the morning, I can only shuffle my feet like Tim Conway's old man on The Carol Burnett Show.



A couple weeks shy of 38, I sometimes feel like I am 60. It's enough to make me look forward to my new body.

But this Psalm is encouraging to me. Even when my skin sags and my bones get brittle, God is rock-firm and faithful. The King James says, "My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever." What a beautiful idea that even when we are weak, he stands strong. In fact, I find when I am the weakest is when he is best able to show his strength.

A couple of weeks ago, I met with some ladies visiting the US from Ukraine. They run a ministry there that counsels women against having abortions, then helps them acquire skills so they can work and support their children. By God's grace, they acquired a piece of land in their town, and are praying about building a rehabilitation hospital on the plot. The Americans in the room got very excited about helping out with this and were asking questions about how much it would cost, how would they raise the money, what kind of timeline they had, etc. The women got very silent, then one looked across the table, pointed her finger and, with a very serious look, said, "Only God can build this building." Wow! What faith. When we are weak, He is strong.

In America, we have so much, our reliance on God is often secondary to our reliance on ourselves. We go to work, we make money, we buy things, we solve problems, we help people, we try to fix things and people and situations. In the places in the world where they just don't have the resources, they rely on God more. In the U.S., we often rely on God only when we can't do something ourselves.

We work so hard to make ourselves strong. Maybe, we need to take time to make ourselves weak, so He can show His strength. Maybe instead of building ourselves up, we need to tear ourselves down, and let Him rebuild us. Maybe we need to become less so God can become more in our lives.

Don't get me wrong... I don't like having a weak body. But, if it means I trust God more- that He must become the strength of my heart and my portion forever- then go ahead and break my bones.