If you have seen the movie "Chariots of Fire," you may recall a scene in which Eric Liddle, one of the two runners on whose life the movie is based, spoke in a church the Sunday morning on which he had declined to race (he believed that he should not run on the Sabbath).  He based his message on a portion of chapter 40 of the prophet Isaiah.  In this passage, the prophet, after underscoring the painfully transient power of the many rulers of the earth (verses 23-24), then goes on, in verses 27 to 31, to laud the way that, in his great and inscrutable sovereign power, God gives power to the weary, that those who in faith call on God for help and strength will receive it, in abundance.  As the omnipotent creator who controls every aspect of the universe, God will happily give hope and relief to the many people (maybe you are one of them) who, every day and for countless reasons, find themselves at the end of their rope, unable and, in some instances, unwilling, to go on.
     All they need do is ask.
     Over the weekend, I completed a half ironman triathlon, swimming 1.2 miles, bicycling 56 miles, and running 13.1 miles, one event after the other, burning through about six hours of an otherwise beautiful day in the northern stretches of the American midwest.  As I came to the close of the bike segment, I passed a woman who, as I moved by her, called out to me, "Hallelujah, praise the Lord, we're almost finished!"  To which I replied, "Yes:  praise God!"  And we both knew why:  true to form, in perfect sync with the words he spoke through Isaiah, God had indeed given us the strength we needed to finish that part of the race.  As surely as he moves the heavens and earth and set the cosmos into motion, so was God moving in our bodies, our trained and conditioned, though at that point greatly challenged bodies, to keep us going and, in the words of Isaiah, enabling us to "rise up with wings like eagles, to run and not get tired or weary."
     All we had to do was ask.