We Will Run and Not Grow Weary

Setting Our Hearts Aflame
We Will Run and Not Grow Weary


“It is now 5 o’clock and I have run out of pithy sayings for you.”

This was the content of a fortune cookie I received several years ago. I think this has stayed with me over the years because how often have we all felt this way? It is five o’clock, the end of a workday but yet it is the beginning of a night full of work: getting supper, doing laundry, catching up with family members and really all we want to do is stop the world for a few minutes, catch our breath and be still.

I have been practicing Lectio Devina for more than a year now and it is my favorite form of prayer. In Lectio you read some scripture (daily reading or other selection) and allow the words and phrases speak to you. Do not try too hard to discover the “lesson” in the passage but try to let God speak to you. A single word or phrase may leap out at you… this is God talking to you. Ask God to show you what he wants you to know.

Some days I feel like I am just too exhausted to pray this way. But in the last week or so I’ve ignored my weariness and prayed with scripture… to my surprise, I have had some very deep and profound conversations with Jesus even though I was really tired and needed to be in bed. I discovered that some of my most personal encounters with God have occurred in my life when I have been totally out of energy and spent. At these times I have tried to “be still” and empty my cluttered brain and have been able to hear God more clearly. When we think too much we may be blocking out God unintentionally. Let us try to empty our brains and let God’s words come to us. Let us keep in mind Psalm 46:10:

Be still, and know that I am God.
Be still, and know.
Be still.
Be.