Inner Strength

Growing up, I remember watching “strong man” competitions on TV. Gigantic men from all over the world would gather to participate in incredible feats of strength that included pulling a truck, lifting large stones and racing with large weights on their backs.  

To accomplish any one of the events in the competition would put the average man in the hospital or worse. However, these men trained in a variety of ways, from weightlifting to eating a tremendous amount of calories every day to get into the kind of shape required to compete.  

While those feats of strength were the kind of thing that my interests or body type were prepared for, I did admire the gifts, discipline and skills it took for those “strong men” to accomplish their tasks.  

As I have gotten older, I have also grown to admire another kind of strength: Inner strength.  

To me, inner strength describes someone’s moral and spiritual life. It describes the way they can bring comfort to others, even when they themselves are struggling. It also describes the exercising of moral courage when people around them are taking the easy way out. Also, the ability to persevere – to keep going, even when life gets difficult – is also a key characteristic of inner strength.  

In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul once wrote: “For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come” (1 Timothy 4:8). That means that in God’s eyes, while physical exercise has its place, the inner strength that comes from a life devoted to serving God and others has value that lasts even beyond this life.  

The more people I meet who exude this inner strength that comes from faith, the more I am reminded of a song by singer and songwriter Larnelle Harris, who, when writing about how this inner strength comes, said: “It’s not in running but in resting; Not in trying but in trusting; Not in wondering, but in praying, that you find the strength of the Lord.” 

May we be people who, while taking care of ourselves outwardly, nurture our faith in such a way that we exhibit inner strength.