More Than Your Eyes Are Seeing

This past week I really needed something to get me through. I feel called to my work, but this first year in a tenure-track position has surprised me, a veteran teacher of 23 years, with the level of intensity and stress and exhaustion I'm feeling.

When I got into the van Wednesday morning and turned it on, the radio came on too, and I heard the voice of a child reading Isaiah 40:30-31:

Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

Then, as I pulled into the parking lot, a song was on in which there was a line that caught my attention, so I stayed to listen to the whole thing and was really ministered to by it:

Everybody falls sometimes
Gotta find the strength to rise
From the ashes and make a new beginning
Anyone can feel the ache
You think it’s more than you can take
But you are stronger, stronger than you know
Don’t you give up now
The sun will soon be shining
You gotta face the clouds
To find the silver lining

I’ve seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn’t ever end
Even when the sky is falling
And I’ve seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That’s what faith can do

It doesn’t matter what you’ve heard
Impossible is not a word
It’s just a reason for someone not to try
Everybody’s scared to death
When they decide to take that step
Out on the water
It’ll be alright
Life is so much more
Than what your eyes are seeing
You will find your way
If you keep believing.

I need to remember that "life is so much more than what my eyes are seeing" - but it's hard sometimes to break through the layer of stress and exhaustion to find the reality of that - but I'm trying to remember - and I sure needed to hear all of the above on the day that I did.