Cliff Loesch

June 3, 2007

Renewal: The First Step

Isaiah 40:25-31



            Have you ever tried to follow a toddler around?  They have only one speed: high speed.  They’re active all the time, busy moving from one activity to another.  We sometimes feel exhausted just watching the endless activity.  We wonder where do they get all their energy, and we wish that we had half their energy.  Just think of all we could accomplish if we had a little of the toddler’s energy.  But the energy of little kids is really not endless.  As a matter of fact, kids run out of steam every day.  Sometimes they go and go and go until they simply cannot go anymore.  They hit a wall, so to speak, and then they crash.  But I wonder if the secret to the toddler’s energy is more than just their young age.  Young children also sleep a lot and I have often wondered if the many hours of sleep that toddlers get might be one of the keys to their tremendous energy.  They often sleep for ten hours per night or sometimes twelve.  And on top of that, they often take an afternoon nap.  What would it be like to be completely rested?  We often hear reports that most adults simply do not get enough sleep.  Basically, we go through life sleep deprived to some extent—so they tell us.  The idea of being completely rested is a nice thought.  A welcome thought.  What would our energy level be like if we were completely rested?

            Isaiah 40 mentions the fact of life that everyone runs out of steam.  We all grow tired and weary.  The passage notes that even youths will faint and be weary, and that even the young will fall exhausted.  Exhaustion.  CNN reported a few years ago that one study suggests that sleep deprivation might be as bad as alcohol impairment.  “Getting less than six hours a night can affect coordination, reaction time and judgment … posing ‘a very serious risk.’”  The report went on to say that “16 to 60 percent of road accidents involve sleep deprivation.  The researchers said countries with drunk driving laws should consider similar restrictions against sleep-deprived driving.”  http://archives.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/09/20/sleep.deprivation/

            William Dement wrote an article called Sleepless at Stanford aimed at college students—but relevant to everyone.  It talks about sleep debt and makes the point that America is a sleepy society.  Dement asks, “How many Americans are seriously or dangerously sleep deprived? There is no doubt whatsoever that vast numbers of us in school, in the workplace, in the transportation industry, in a variety of service industries, and particularly, in shift work situations, are carrying a dangerously large sleep debt.”  And Dement adds, “In Gallup Poll surveys, 56% of the adult population reports that drowsiness in the daytime is a problem.  In one scientific study where sleepiness was measured objectively in more than one thousand people who said they had no problem with daytime drowsiness, 34% were found to be dangerously sleepy.  Considering that the subjects in this study were chosen specifically because they did not complain about daytime sleepiness, this result proves without a doubt that a significant percentage of the population carries out daily tasks and activities while dangerously sleepy.”  He goes on to say, “Here at Stanford, we have studied samples of undergraduates, nurses, and medical students.  We found that 80 percent were dangerously sleep deprived. By dangerously sleep deprived, I mean, of course, that these individuals are at high risk for some sort of accident involving unintended sleep or impaired performance.  In all walks of life, it is likely that sleep deprivation has consequences - difficulty studying, diminished productivity, tendency to make mistakes, irritability, fatigue.  For most people, the accumulation of a huge sleep debt appears to have happened so gradually that they erroneously blame their tiredness and fatigue on many other things such as a virus, depression, stress, changing metabolism, growing older, and so do their doctors.”  http://www.stanford.edu/~dement/sleepless.html  Is anyone out there having trouble staying awake right now?  I imagine all this information makes all of us want to make plans for a Sunday afternoon nap.

            Verse 26 of Isaiah 40 makes the point that God is great in strength and mighty in power.  Verse 28 says, “He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.”  And the passage goes on to make the point that God “gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless.”

            In Daily Guideposts a few years ago, Mary Ruth Howes wrote that as a girl she did not care for the taste of pickles.  But it was 1948 and on a muggy day in Philadelphia in May she saw one of her high school friends bite into a crisp dill pickle and it looked so cool and refreshing.  She realized that she actually wished that she liked pickles—and she made the decision to try to acquire a taste for them.  So every time pickles were served at a meal, she resolved to take a little bite.  At first there was a lot of puckering involved.  But over time she got to the point that she did not mind the acidity.  And by the end of the summer she actually liked pickles.  That was over fifty years ago and one day while eating one of her own homemade pickles she was transported back to that summer when she was in high school.  But she found herself looking around at her kitchen with the pile of dishes in the sink thinking about how much she hated doing dishes.  And the thought struck her: “What would happen if I said, ‘I wish I liked washing dishes?’”  And she made the point, “Change begins with the wish to change.”  [Daily Guideposts, 8/16/99] 

            I’ve been thinking about the theme of renewal a lot lately.  And I like this story about learning to like pickles, because it does seem that there is a lot that we can do to bring about change in our lives—and a lot that we can do that will contribute to our own inward renewal.  We just make a plan and go for it.  But on the other hand, like toddlers, we all run out of steam.  And like the young (who are mentioned in Isaiah) we all faint and grow weary; we all fall exhausted.

            And sometimes no matter how hard we try we cannot bring about our own inward renewal.  Despite the ways we implement our plans for renewal or the ways we use our willpower in the process—often we realize we can’t do it on our own.  And we see that we’ve skipped over an important step.

            Isaiah 40 does not say, “Do these three things in order to be renewed.”  Nor does it say, “Exercise more will power and you will be renewed.”  No, it says we all faint and grow weary.  It says that we sometimes fall exhausted.  But the good news is that even still we can find renewal—our strength can be renewed; we can mount up with wings like eagles; we can run and not be weary, and walk and not faint.  All this renewal begins with one thing: wait for the Lord.  It says, “But those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength.”  And what about the exhaustion factor?  There must be some relationship between waiting and resting.  Perhaps resting precedes waiting—we rest before we are able to truly wait for the Lord.  Or perhaps the two are even more closely related.

            Growing weary is a common experience for all of us.  And we all see that inner renewal is something we need.  Isaiah 40 reminds us that the first step in renewal is simply to wait—those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength.