If we are wearied by the footmen, how will we contend with horses?

Today was a great day. We had a guest speaker at church, Pastor Levi Lusko. His message was called: Running With Horses (cue the Eagle). The title alone told me I was gonna love the sermon (I totally did!!!). His message was taken from Jeremiah 12. God had called Jeremiah to be a prophet to the nations, but before sending him out. God started Jeremiah’s ministry at home. Things however, did not go as Jeremiah envisioned, therefore he starts whining to God (makes perfect sense to me 🙂 ). In Jeremiah 12:5, God answers Jeremiah’s whine with this: “If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you. Then how can you contend with horses? If in the land of peace, in which you trusted, have wearied you. Then how will you do it in the floodplain of the Jordan?” The point if you can’t handle it now, when everything is in your favor, when you have home-field advantage,  how will you manage at the away game (yup, slid a football analogy right in there). The question got me thinking. I whine a lot, in fact I would gold if it was an Olympic event. But if I can’t manage now, when all the odds are in my favor how will I manage when they aren’t? Then it hit me, this time was God preparing Jeremiah for what’s to come. He was teaching him how to handle the disappointments and the opposition that he would inevitably face. Life doesn’t always go the way we expect. God promises to be with us, to walk us through. Many times our expectation is that the walk will be cake (because God is with us), but most times it is like walking on broken glass. But that’s part of the process. Why? We gain callouses that allow us to tread the broken glass easier. Don’t run from your broken glass days, take the steps needed to build your callouses. God wants us to run with horses. Not be wearied by footmen.

“So, Jeremiah, if you’re worn out in this footrace with men, what makes you think you can race against horses? And if you can’t keep your wits during times of calm, what’s going to happen when troubles break loose like the Jordan in flood?” (Jeremiah 12:5, The Message Bible).

So what’s my plan of attack? Building callouses.