PERSPECTIVE

To say the least, it’s been a long week. Even on Monday night, I was feeling plenty sorry for myself. I felt terrible physically, & mentally I was just wiped (out). Altho it’s one of my favorite shows, I almost didn’t make it thru watching “Dancing With the Stars”, & collapsed into bed soon afterward.


You could say that I have a complicated life. Working full-time, with a house “up north” & another “down south”, my sis & I share 12 dogs (yes, I said 12!), 6 sheep, 30 chickens, 4 parrots, & “a partridge in a pear tree”! Of my dogs, one is almost blind & going deaf, one is old & somewhat senile, one has brain damage from seizures, & one is starting to show dementia. Their needs are great, & I always feel inadequate in trying to meet them. Not to mention everything else!

In truth, I don’t suppose my life is any more complicated than most parents with a house full of active kids, & and all of their needs. I was just feeling sorry for myself. Put upon. Unappreciated. Bummed out.

The Word always has something to say, even when it gets bad like that, & that night was REALLY bad. I can always find comfort in Psalms, but one of my all-time favorite places to lift my spirits is in the Isaiah 40’s. Yeah, I know, real specific! But this is gained over years of going back to reading these passages, & the blessings they have brought to me.


So here are a few nuggets from these wonderful passages:

Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, in His arm He will gather the lambs and carry them in His bosom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes. [40:11]

Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars, the One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, not one of them is missing. [40:26]

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary. [40:28-31]

Now, this is just Isaiah 40! Let me tell you, there’s even more to lift your heart as you read thru these chapters! So give it a try! And don't lose heart. "The battle has already been won, beloved! Now it's time to start ACTING victorious!!"

Finally, here is a classic to lift your hearts. If you’re having a tough time, let the cadence of these stanzas bring joy to your soul:

There is a land of pure delight
Where saints immortal reign,
Infinite day excludes the night,
And pleasures banish pain.

There everlasting spring abides,
And never-withering flowers:
Death like a narrow sea divides
This heavenly land from ours.

Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood
Stand dressed in living green:
So to the Jews old Canaan stood,
While Jordan rolled between.

But timorous mortals start and shrink
To cross this narrow sea,
And linger shivering on the bank,
And fear to launch away.

Oh could we make our doubts remove,
These gloomy doubts that rise,
And see the Canaan that we love,
With unbeclouded eyes.

Could we but climb where Moses stood,
And view the landscape o'er
Not Jordan's stream, nor death's cold flood
Should fright us from the shore.

~~“A Prospect of Heaven Makes Death Easy” by Isaac Watts