He renews my strength.
He guides me along right paths,
bringing honor to his name.
Psalm 23:3 NLT
Half-way through, many of us find ourselves in one of two extremes: discouraged from having lost sight of our vision, or discouraged from having been burnt out of trying to keep up with our vision. Either way, half-way through is that moment when we should pause, take stock and take a well-deserved break.
It’s been six months since we entered this new chapter of our journey this 2014. After about 180 days, who can deny the fact that so many things have happened? Of those many things, there were experiences which fall under life-changing ones, leaving indelible marks on our persons; while other experiences ordinary and insignificant or in-between. It’s been like a pendulum, where we’ve swung from success to failure and back again, from accomplished goals to unattained purposes and back again, from having reached the heights of our passion to our Lord to finding ourselves prostrate on the ground and back again.
Life goes on.
We do not move forward unchanged. And it is precisely because of this that this pause is necessary before we move ever forward. Like an ax that needs to pause and be sharpened half-way through a whole day of falling trees, or a sponge that needs to pause and be squeezed dry before it is used to soak in a new batch of wet, we are no different. We need to pause and draw our strength, once more, from the Source: God.
The Psalmist highlights this truth in this perfectly crafted string of words: “He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name” (Psalm 23:3 NLT).
It must have been a challenging journey but no matter what lies ahead, we need not cower in hopeless discouragement. Strength is in the stillness of His presence, in His loving embrace, in His untiring grace. In His arms, we are assured that we have not reached the end of our story, that all those tiresome and sleepless nights have not been for nothing. There is still so much more in store “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11).
Tired? Discouraged? Take a break and look to God. He will renew you. In this half-time break, let us allow the truth to be embedded in our hearts – we are safe with our Good Shepherd who is with us all the way to the end.