End of the rope

The past few days I've had this verse from Matthew (5:3) in my mind. Here it is: "You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule."

Lately we've been feeling like we're at the end of our rope. It's interesting because especially after big victories, like the one we experienced at the end of last week, we seem to get completely drained, depleted of all energy and exuberance for life (the way the Message renders one of the fruits of the Spirit).

Life has been pretty stressful here for, oh..., around 8 or 9 months now. Because of all of the legal stuff that has been going on we have not wanted to put any time or money toward a vacation, thinking that we really don't have either of those in large amounts. Man does that lead to stress issues, though, especially when combined with the general things that go along with life and ministry in a foreign culture. Yikes!

But we are told that when we are at the end of our rope...as we feel often...that God is there in a big way. We've been figuring out that this doesn't mean, though, that we're just to go limp and wait for Him to pull us up to the safety of the ledge above us (I'm thinking rock climbing here). But rather that He is there to support us as we continue to climb. Oh how we need to make use of that support and not just dangle here on our own...in our own [lack of] strength.

That's it for this morning. I was thinking through these things and thought it might help me to talk about them. Life goes on. We'll "vacate" at some point and hopefully relieve the stress. We'll reach the ledge and muster up the strength to tackle the next leg of the climb...certainly not because we're so strong and able...but because of Who we have supporting us through it all!