Just some early morning thoughts from me to you…  

“He was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.  We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.  He was despised, and we did not care.
Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows[a] that weighed him down.  And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins!
But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins.  He was beaten so we could be whole.
He was whipped so we could be healed.”
Isaiah 53: 3-5 (NLT)

“Have you not known? Have you not heard?  The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.  He does not faint or grow weary, his understanding is unsearchable.
 He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. 
Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”
Isaiah 40: 28-31 (RSV)

We have all been there.

Trying to figure out the way ahead.  

To figure out who we are, our purpose in life, while the world points to one meaningless way after another, and yells “what have you done lately?”

Needing to find our way out of whatever hole we seem to have found ourselves deep within, with walls seemingly too steep to climb.

We look to and listen to others for directions.  So-called experts, but their way is often just that—their way, to nowhere.

A number of us had the privilege recently at an Impact for Living event we put on, to listen to a dear friend and former college basketball coach, now NBA head coach, Billy Donovan, as he openly shared reflections on his faith and life.

Sharing about the lure of the same siren calls we all experience, calling him to climb ladders seeking the world’s definitions of success.  And finding out that when he got there, “what” he was truly seeking was not there.

Realizing, not too late, though, that finding the “why” of his journey would be what truly led him to finding the fulfillment and purpose of the life God created him, and created us also, to live.

Finding and embracing “why” God created him.  

Very simply—to glorify God in all he did.  

By living the life God intended him to live.  And with all the lives God entrusted to him, and would set before him, to add value to them, every day of his life.  

Realizing that by maximizing the passions of his life, his potential and abilities, the platforms and roles he occupied, and the resources God had entrusted to him—he would begin to live the life he was meant to live, and lift others around him, ultimately all to glorify God.  

All while finding and following God’s purpose for his life.  And when he lost his way, to look to and return to God, and to lean once again into the God who created him.  

As Isaiah assures him and assures all of us in Isaiah 40, to stand with and wait upon the Lord to renew our strength and find our way with God.  

To look to the cross, remembering what Christ did for you and for me by giving His life on that cross, so that we could be healed from all that we suffered, from all our mistakes, shortfalls and failings, and be made whole, as we are reminded in Isaiah 53.

To mount up on wings like eagles by waiting upon the Lord, by looking at and remembering what Jesus did for us on the cross, and as Third Day reminds us in their song, to “Cry Out to Jesus” when we don’t know which way to turn, as they share—

“And to all of the people with burdens and pains
Keeping you back from your life.
You believe that there’s nothing and there is no one
Who can make it right.
When you’re lonely and it feels like the whole world is falling on you,
You just reach out, you just cry out to Jesus, 
Cry to Jesus.
There is hope for the helpless, rest for the weary,
And love for the broken heart.
And there is grace and forgiveness, mercy and healing.
He’ll meet you wherever you are.
Cry out to Jesus, Cry out to Jesus…”

Find yourself uncertain of what’s next and seem to be looking for the way again?  

Struggling to find purpose and meaning in life.

Weary.  Unsure.  Lonely.  Broken.  

Something has you in its grip, and you can’t break free.

Look to the cross.  Cry out to Jesus.
 
In His Name—Scott 
 
Be blessed, directed, and encouraged as you listen to Third Day sing “Cry Out to Jesus.”