A Flag to Follow

Can I tell you a story of something I always complained about? It’s my name. Leah. Do you know what it means?

Weary.

Actually, depending on the source, it can mean a lot of lovely things, like grieved, delicate, sorrowful, tired. But always, definitely, weary.

Why, mom? I’d complain. Why did you and dad name me something so negative?!? Sometimes I would even half-jokingly blame my name when life wasn’t so good. I’d figure it was a label I was tied to, and it sometimes felt like a curse I’d never escape.

Until one day. One day when I did the simplest thing ever. I typed “weary” into the search bar of my Bible app. And within moments my perspective was forever changed. 

Because do you know what? “Weary” is found in some of the most beautiful passages of God’s word. 

“Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” Isaiah 40:28-31

Through the years, thousands of Christians have read these beautiful verses and found rest. Many have wiped away their tears and smiled at these comforting words. Here where the word “weary” is found.

“And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” Galatians 6:9

How many brothers and sisters in Christ, ready to give up, have been encouraged by this verse? This verse with weary in it.

The word weary is even found in prophecy about Jesus:

“The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.” Isaiah 50:4

What was so impactful to me was that many of the verses I was scrolling through were ones that God had used in my life personally. They may not be special to another; but to me they were dear. I had often found rest in these verses; I had my heart changed through them. And I’d never stopped to think that the word weary was there.

“For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people. To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing….” Isaiah 28:11-12

“…But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.” Jeremiah 20:9

“For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.” Jeremiah 31:25

How had I never noticed?

All these years I had been blind to this little detail. A detail that God knew all along.

So that’s the story of how something I thought was a curse was really a blessing. Now I embrace my name. Because there is a golden thread of meaning that is woven through the words of God that give my name a beauty I never saw before.