Strong

In high school I was so skinny that my basketball coach kept telling me to bulk up.  So I began lifting, but I refused to use any muscle gainers.  I remember one day I asked a teacher to spot me.  I put the weight I thought I could lift up on the bar. He came to spot me, and as I lifted, the bar slammed into my chest.  The problem was that this teacher was almost as skinny as me.  I was in throbbing pain, but I didn’t want him to think I couldn’t do it so I kept lifting.  I finished the set and put the bar on the rack.  He asked if I wanted to do another set, and I, in pain answered, “No, I am good.”  He asked if I lifted this weight before and I was like, “Yeah, all the time.”  I wanted to be strong, and I had every intention of getting stronger, but I was just thin.

            This word strong is used in our culture often.  Live Strong became something so well known in our culture by yellow bracelets.  I thought this idea of Strong might die after Lance Armstrong, who was the main spokesmen for it, admitted he had used enhancement drugs to make him strong.  Yet, this word seems to be a culturally vogue way of talking about how to make it through tough times.  It was originally coined after Lance made it through cancer.  Now this focus on Strong comes into play when we face tragedy.

            This week, Boston Strong was used by many baseball players and other people to talk about how the city fought through their most recent tragedy with the bombings that occurred during the Boston Marathon.  Every tragedy brings people together and strengthens relationships.  As people not living in Boston, it brought many of us together to thank God for our relationships and family.  But it struck me that while these people are still strong and getting stronger, they still hurt.  The dad who lost the son who was watching him race is pained.  I also thought about runners who were about to complete 26 miles with fully abled bodies, now might never run again.  Tragedy strikes and it hurts.  We want to respond and find out who is responsible, but it brings about a feeling of uneasiness about the safety of our country.  No matter how strong we are, we need to be stronger to handle days like that.  And honestly, it seems that nobody has answers or understands why these tragedies happen.  In a moment when a city celebrated a holiday and hosted a marathon, it became a moment when America felt its safety and enjoyment was stolen.

            This weekend our two scripture passages, Acts 20:17-35 and John 10:22-30, talk about this.  They focus on the true foundation of strength that can be found in Jesus--that no one can snatch us from His hands.  In Acts we learn about days similar to the Boston Marathon; that, as then, others will come and try to steal us away.  But no one can steal us from the hands of Jesus, our God and King.  As the world mourned on Monday, I thought about the opportunities for people trying to be strong, and how we could share the message of true strength found in our Savior.  I thought about how our Savior endured the great tragedy of taking on all the sin in our world.  Days like Monday are tough, but remind us of the great strength of Jesus our King!  We will talk about that this weekend and pray for the people in Boston.