Strength

Have you ever met people who were strong? I am not talking about a physical strength derived from long hours in the gym. I am thinking about people who have strength of character, people who are strong in their ability to do what they say they are going to do. I am even thinking about people who possess an inner strength which sees them through difficult times.

I have always felt like a strong person. I have felt like I came from "strong stock"and a heritage of strength derived from the generations who have gone before me.


Until recently.

Recently I have experienced moments of weakness causing me to rely on others and God.During this time I received a card from a friend with words that were a great encouragement to me. In recognizable writing, my friend wrote...

I am praying that God will use these redirected

moments to draw you closer to Him and help

you see the future clearer than every before.

With stunning precision his words pierced my heart and reminded me of familiar words, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” II Corinthians 12:9


I like the words of my friend...."redirected moments." 


Have you ever had any of those?  What did you do when the path led somewhere other than where you planned?  What did you do when your moments were redirected?

I have done a lot of reading over the last two weeks. I have drunk from the wells of authors who have satisfied the thirst of my soul. My mind, heart and soul have been nourished in ways that would not have been possible unless my "paths had been re-oriented."


Several weeks ago I purchased Bonhoeffer, Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy: A Righteous Gentile vs. The Third Reich by Eric Metaxas. Because I direct most of the moments of my life, I have not had the time to read this book about one of my favorite characters from Christendom. Bonhoeffer's life was a series of "re-directed moments" eventually leading to his death in a concentration camp in Flossenburg.


Metaxas describes Bonhoeffer in a powerful way, he says..."(Bonhoeffer's) strength was borrowed from God and lent to others." p.463.


My prayer is, that in the words of my friend, I will "see the future clearer than ever before" because my "strength is borrowed from God and lent to others."

God, give me your strength and I will lend it to others...