He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Isaiah 40:29-31 (NIV)

I can’t believe it, but I did it again. It seems every couple of years I throw my back out, and find myself out of commission for a day or two. It usually happens in the spring when it first starts to warm up and I get the itch to do some yard work or other projects. I lift something or try to push something out of my way, and I hear and feel that all too familiar “pop.” I guess during the winter months my back gets accustomed to the feel of the couch behind it, and it wants to protest lifting bags of grass and pulling weeds.

Today when it happened I was lifting a bag of garden tools that weighed no more than ten pounds! The first words out of my mouth were, “Oh no! Not again.”

I know I’m supposed to “lift with the legs, not with the back,” but somehow I seem to forget. Now it’s too late, and so I’m spending the afternoon rotating between the heating pad and the ice pack. While I rest, I’m thinking about my own weakness and how much I hate not being able to do what I want to do out in the yard. I keep asking God to strengthen my back, but I guess I’ll have to let time and the Lord do their work.

I wonder – why is it that I generally only look to God for strength when I seem to be in desperate need? I know I need His strength all the time even if I don’t think I do. Maybe He allows me to experience weakness so I’ll be reminded how much I need Him.

For you are the fountain of life, the light by which we see. Psalm 36:9 (NLT)