What is the image in your mind when you hear the word “Strength”?
When I think of the word strength, a few images fly through my head. One is of the huge, burly weight lifters that you see at the Olympics. Men/women, lifting incredible weights for short periods of time. Mustering incredible energy in short burst. Another, is of a marathon runners, when you see those legs pumping at a measured cadence, over and over, propelling them to 5 minute miles, for 26.3 miles. Theirs is a measured, calculated explosion of energy, again and again and again. A third, a different type, is of people who are in recovery, as they celebrate 1 month, then 3, then a year, and then ten of sobriety, fighting off a set of demons of addiction whom never let go of them.
Strength is about mustering bone and sinew to the purpose of our lives. Strength, inner or outer, is what allows us to translate the decisions of our heart to choice-full actions. I choose to move a heavy object, and my will summons the strength of my muscles into purposeful behavior. I choose to respond to a difficult situation with compassion, and it is my inner strength that allows me to do so effectively.
“Therefore, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and your neighbor as yourself.” We’ve heard it a hundred times. And most of the time we focus on either the verb in that sentence – love, or the object – God/neighbor. But this day, this week, the invitation that I heard was about the phrase “all your strength.” What a great examination of conscience… With all my strength… Have I done that? This day, did I love with all my strength. Did I muster all that I could to be present to each moment and each opportunity to act? And what did that look like. Because it strikes me that there are different moments to strength, different expressions of the act which we call strong. And that they fall into at least those three images: weightlifter, marathon runner, and recovering addict strength that this command invites us to. And that we can pray for in a given situation.
Perhaps it will be a weightlifter moment – when for just a brief time, we will be asked to summon an incredible amount of love to be patient with the beggar at my door who is kind of insistent and demanding. Or the demanding school parent who is never sighted inside of church, and yet questions every decision that is made about their troubled child. And the word of reproach was right there, just ready to blast the other… and somehow, I have to find that huge, brief amount of strength not to strike back, not to say the hurtful thing. You shall love the Lord your God with a weightlifter’s strength…
Or perhaps this week it will be more of the marathon experience with love – the measured, consistent pace of repetitive action. Will it be teaching over and over of a difficult concept to the student whom we are volunteering our time with? Or the repeated experience of doing the dirty dishes that someone else left in the sink; or the choice to care for a parent with Alzheimer’s, when you have to explain for the 10th time that hour why she is no longer living in her own home… You shall love with a marathon runner’s strength…
Or perhaps it will be the recovering addict’s strength that will be asked of you – the kind that has to look ahead and see the triggers in a given day that will tempt one to drink, so as to avoid them. “Recovering” strength learns to prioritize a week’s energy. It is the strength that makes the necessary judgment about where and how one spends their time, so that the important things get done. Sometimes love calls you to say no to a good thing, so that the greater thing can be chosen. People in recovery learn to say no to the things that will get them in trouble, so they can say yes to the opportunities for greater life. (I know it every Saturday night when I leave a party or gathering early, because I need to be ready to celebrate mass in the morning.) It is strength as the choice to get enough rest and exercise and nutrition, so one is able to do that which is demanded of them. …Love the Lord your God with a recovering addict’s strength.
What does strength look like for you? Because there is a good chance that YOU will have to love the Lord in that way this week – with a weightlifters or marathon runner’s or recovering addict’s strength. May we do just that….