Power to the Weak

29 He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. (Isaiah 40:29)

Our home is heated by wood. Heating with wood has always been an interest for me. Every home we have owned has boasted at least one wood burning appliance. Heating primarily with wood has become a retirement dream come true for me. There is something so comforting about the all pervasive heat it creates. It is aesthetically beautiful. It is relatively inexpensive. It is also very labour intensive. One of the most challenging jobs is the necessity to clean the heat exchangers in the furnace as well as the chimney. For safety’s sake, I undertake that job three times a year. Several days ago, I spent the evening before and the morning cleaning the furnace. It is a very dirty job resulting in an exhaustive cleanup of the furnace room and the do-it-yourself technician. Since the weather was mild, I determined I should go on the roof to clean the chimney as well.

I acknowledged to myself that I was indeed too tired to do the job properly, but stubbornly climbed the ladder. Normally, cleaning the chimney is as simple as running the four lengths of chimney brush rods down the chimney and cleaning out the resulting debris in the cleanout in the basement. The rods are threaded and attach together very securely so that they will not come apart in the chimney. It is paramount to pay close attention to each coupling or the brush can become uncoupled and therefore hopelessly stuck in the chimney. Of course the inevitable happened and there I was, exhausted, with a brush and two lengths of rod stuck in the chimney well out of reach. I spent about forty-five minutes attempting every way I could think of to grab the top of the rod just barely in sight in the chimney. I wearily had to descend and sat down at the kitchen table to have something to eat and to think. Finally I had the foresight to pray. I prayed for the technical solution as well as the energy to carry such out. As I calmed down in prayer and stopped wondering if I should call my handy neighbour for a second time or indeed a furnace repair man, the answer came to me and that was to push the brush and rods up from the bottom of the chimney with the remaining rods and a spare brush. In half an hour, the job was complete and the Lord thanked.

In my exhaustion I was feeling particularly sorry for myself. I sat down in front of the family room television only to be shocked by the early pictures of devastation coming out of Haiti. I still can’t properly comprehend the scale of the disaster following the earthquake. I cannot even put into words the degree of pain and suffering we are witnessing through modern communications. The flow of heart rending photographs and video clips seems to be never ending. Image after image shows the anguish, shock and grief of loss on each face. As the days unfold, we see the results of thirst, starvation and inevitable disease. As always, desperation leads to the breakdown of civilised behaviour in favour of the chaos of violence. I pray that relief efforts can avert this all too common human response to survival.

I have not felt sorry for myself since that moment.

The words of Isaiah 40: 29 are constantly in my mind.

29 He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. (Isaiah 40:29)

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