Why the Waiting Wears You Out: What Isaiah 40 Says to the Tired Believer
You've been waiting so long the prayer has gone smooth. You've said it so many times the words have worn down like a coin you've carried in your pocket for years — the job, the diagnosis, the door that won't open, the person who hasn't come back. And here's what nobody warns you about waiting: it doesn't just take time. It takes something out of you.
You can carry a hard thing. Most of us have proved that. What wears you down isn't the weight — it's the not knowing when.
Give a man a heavy load and tell him it's two miles, and he'll walk it. Refuse to tell him how far, and watch how much faster he tires. Same weight. Different man. The uncertainty costs more than the burden. So you brace. You live at the edge of your seat — checking the phone, rereading the message, scanning for a sign. And that bracing runs on you. It burns your fuel, day after day, and never once moves the car. So when you finally whisper, "God, I am so tired" — a lot of that tiredness isn't the waiting. It's what you've been doing while you wait.