Psalm 103:13-14 (NIV) As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.

In spite of all of our grandstanding, our bluster, or our attempt to always put up a good front, every one of us is all too human. We cannot escape our humanity. We try to stay ahead of our humanity but there is no outrunning it. Try as we may to forestall the inevitable, we all get tired, discouraged, deflated, and many times depressed. Sometimes, we just run out of steam and if we are not careful, we can crash and burn.

God knows all about our troubles. So much so that He has compassion for us, as the scripture above tells us. That is why the Lord woos us, encourages us, teaches us and admonishes us to put all of our trust and our hope in Him. He knows that we are human and because humanity fell because of sin, we are in deep trouble without Him. Most people who either deny that God exists or that ignore Him desperately try to move on with life, but they all run into their humanity. They try to cope by either medicating themselves (alcohol, drugs, etc.) or getting involved in illicit things in order to satisfy that unquenchable thing in us, which can only be quenched by a relationship with God, the one who made them. But Christians also run into their humanity.

Being a follower of Christ doesn’t spare you from your humanity. What it does is provide a solution for it. Because we are human, we naturally devolve. As an example to explain what I mean, when a person goes out jogging they start out full of energy, but soon that energy is used up and the person runs out of steam. Everything in our lives is that way. We start out on a high note and eventually wind up on a low note. That’s why we need Jesus every day or better said, every moment of every day. Knowing our humanity and our tendency to devolve, we need to be vigilant about not allowing ourselves to get to a dangerous low point. When we allow that, we become like Elijah who wound up sitting under a broom tree asking God to take his life. We need to run to Jesus immediately when we begin to feel our humanity. He is our life, our peace and our joy. He is our reason to keep on keeping on. He is our motivation and He is our goal. More than being headed to heaven, we are headed to see Jesus face to face one day. In the meantime, we have access to His throne of grace to help us with our humanity until we go home to be with Him. Learn to deal with your humanity by not allowing your humanity to swallow you alive. Run to your Savior every time you begin to feel that devolving process that is a part of living here on this earth. The way has been opened for you to be in His presence and in His presence, there is no devolving. There is transformation and refreshing instead. They that wait upon the Lord (those that run to Him) shall renew their strength and soar like eagles (Isaiah 40:31). Soar above your humanity in Jesus’ name!

Pastor Joey Vazquez