When I'm weak, You make me strong

Our bodies are so weak. On Sunday night, I couldn't fall asleep from a combination of excitement from buying a new car, having slept 1340938 hours over spring break, and being in a new bed for the first time in a week. I slept 3 hours, and had a full day of classes starting anew on Monday. I couldn't focus at ALL in class, I had to work on a lab after classes and was barely helpful to my group, and when studying Samuel in Bible study that night all the words seemed to blur together. My hands even shook when I tried to write something...I was completely useless that day.

I guess I am thinking about the frailty of our bodies because I have a friend who's recently been diagnosed with cancer and he's starting chemo and stuff real soon. It's really scary to go to class and see his empty seat, knowing that he's missing so many classes because his body is not healthy. Kind of like mine wasn't healthy on Monday, except to a much more severe degree. I'm pretty sure chemo makes you weaker and sicker before it makes you better...so that will be a challenge for him too.

I have been studying the stations of the cross with the prayer leaders this semester, and tonight we studied "Jesus falls the 3rd time." It emphasizes the weakness of our physical bodies, and the need for God in our lives. Without him, we're totally useless. Here's the meditation:

Ninth Station: Jesus falls a third time

Leader: We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you.
All: Because by your holy cross You have redeemed the world.

Jesus, your journey has been long. You fall again, beneath your cross. You know your journey is coming to an end. You struggle and struggle. You get up and keep going.

As a child, sometimes I fail time and time again. I find it hard to get along with my sisters and brothers, sometimes I'm not honest, sometimes I'm lazy. I'm tempted to stop trying. It's just too hard sometimes.

As an adult, I often feel I should have conquered my weaknesses by now. I become discouraged when I'm confronted by the same problems over and over again. Sometimes I get weary. When I have health problems, I can become discouraged and depressed.

Help me think of the cross you carried. Help me continue to hope that I can make the changes in my life I need to. You didn't give up. I can have the strength to get up again as well.

My Jesus, by all the bitter woes Thou didst endure when for the third time the heavy cross bowed Thee to the earth, never, I beseech Thee, let me fall again into sin. Ah, my Jesus, rather let me die than ever offend Thee again.


It's such a powerful meditation. Even Jesus was physically weak when going to the cross...he fell 3 times! And this is JESUS we're talking about! We are so much weaker, and sometimes we get discouraged by that. Okay, I almost ALWAYS get discouraged by that. But through Christ, we have the strength to get up again, to keep going. We need to remember that.

And my favorite line is the last: My Jesus, rather let me die than ever offend Thee again.