a misguided motto?

   Just returned from an awesome week away with Jacqui, Timmy, Sarah and Louisa in the New Forest. Great week, lots and lots of food, singing and fun. Im sure there are loads of "Grace in Nature" posts to follow!! But firstly I want to share my memory verse[s] for the week with you, because it is so wonderful and full of hope.

  Incidently it was also the official motto at Bedford Modern School, which I attended for 3 years. Curiously it was only mentioned once in my three year stint, and then it was direly misquoted and misrepresentated. Being a school which is majorly concerned with both sporting and creative achievments (as most independant schools are), these verses could, potentially, inspire the students to great achievements! However this is totally missing the point of the prophecy. Have a read, and see what you think, it is taken from Isaiah chapter 40, verses 28 onwards:

"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."

    Interestingly the school motto, as displayed in a wonderful stained glass display beside the staircase to what was then the Sixth Form Centre, only contained the last section, "but they who wait for the LORD...". The implication was that anyone who lives well and tries hard shall be blessed and shall win all of the school's races, will beat Bedford School at rugby (something me and my fellow C-Team players always failed to achieve, sometimes losing by as much as 100-0), will hit sixes in cricket, will play the chello beautifully, will take a leading role in the school's famous plays and shows, and will generally be Head Boy or Head Girl material.

    Had the compilers of the motto read the passage leading up to that particular quote then they would have had a nasty shock:

     "Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted."

Eh oh, doesn't  bode well for next weeks football match, does it? However it is a fact which those who are "less suited" to sports or creative pursuits can well agree with. I regularly found myself exhausted in games lessons! In fact, it comes as a relief to see that the Word of God acknowledges man's limits and failings. The point being made by Isaiah is not that young men should run harder, jump higher, ruck-over quicker or hit further; but rather the prophet is showing us how much mightier is God than us:

"Do you not know? Do you not hear?
        Has it not been told you from the beginning?
        Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
     It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
        and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
    who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
        and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
     who brings princes to nothing,
        and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.
To whom then will you compare me,
        that I should be like him? says the Holy One."

    We might fall exhausted after running a 100 meter sprint, we may feel battered and bruised after scrummaging with the brutes in Bedford School's 'pack'; but the LORD is the everlasting God! He does not grow weary! And Isaiah even makes a point for the more academic students of High Schools: "his understanding is unsearchable." Try that one for size you Religious Study students! We might get As or A*s in Geography or History exams but God made the very earth, and all of history was shaped by His hands! 

    So, should this passage leave the students of Bedford Modern School hopeless and in despair? Ah, but what does Isaiah go on to say?

"He gives power to the faint,
        and to him who has no might he increases strength."

   The LORD himself gives power to those of us who have none! Our God has blessed us beyond our imaginations. To those who trust in Him God gives such blessings that none can believe! Try reading Romans 8:1 or Ephesians 1:3-4. Maybe we won't win all the races, maybe we aren't Head Boy material, but the Lord has a greater task for us: to tell forth of our God, the Lord Jesus Christ. James Hudson Taylor put it like this:

"God uses men who are weak and feeble enough to lean on him."

   Or as the Apostle Paul puts it:

"But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong."

   Lets take hope in the knowledge that although we are powerless, weak and foolish, God can work in our lives to bring about great things! There are so many accounts, both in the bible and elsewheres, of Christians who were an example of this. So, please, please, please don't take from these verses some elusions of self-grandeur. But take from them the brilliance and greatness and majesty of our God!

 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.