Day 18 - I'm Tired
“Come to me, all of you who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke and put it on you, and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit; and you will find rest. For the yoke I will give you is easy, and the load I will put on you is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 (GNT)
My intent was for this post to come later in the month, but…I’m tired. For the first time in a long time, I can say that it isn’t fatigue from my illness, which I’m happy about. But I’m constantly having to monitor my energy levels so that it doesn’t get to a point where it sends my body into a flare. I guess you could say it’s exhausting worrying about exhaustion.
We won’t be victorious if we’re so tired we can’t function. Besides, what’s the point of all the work if we can’t enjoy the spoils of victory a little bit? Now don’t get me wrong, whatever you’re after this year will most certainly tire you at times. Energy is one of the costs you have to be willing to give to be successful. But there is a happy medium; we must leave room for renewal and replenishing when our tanks are low. So, today I want to talk about identifying and alleviating exhaustion, and we’re going to dive into both natural and spiritual exhaustion. Ready?
Physical Exhaustion
I think we often forget to monitor our physical well-being in the craziness of life. A lot of times, we’ll work ourselves to the point of exhaustion because we’ve left no room/time to take a needed self-inventory. I’m hyper-aware of this now- as I’ve said before, I have to schedule out time and activities and listen to my body, otherwise I will end up in a full-blown flare of Fibromyalgia and RA pain. Through my experience, I’ve realized that we sacrifice our bodies and mental health in an attempt to meet deadlines, get ahead, do everything perfectly, and/or meet the needs of others. But where do we draw the line? The answer is, too few of us actually draw one; we force ourselves to continue going until we can no longer function, which demands that we finally take a break.
I’m always amazed at how many people don’t use their vacation days. I get it, there’s a rat race to make it to the top, people are relying on you to provide and handle everything. But what’s the point in doing it if you’ve sacrificed relationships and time with your family and friends, your health, and even time with God? USE 👏🏽 YOUR 👏🏽 VACATION 👏🏽 TIME 👏🏽. Even if it’s one day here and there to take a mental health or spa day. If vacation time doesn’t apply to you, schedule a break and use it to rest. Close the door, put in ear plugs, and take a bath. Do something for yourself. Look, the world will not stop turning if you don’t fix that thing right now. Your family will survive one (or even 5!) night without a home-cooked meal. The work will still be on your desk tomorrow, and no one is going to take your place overnight. Repeat after me: I AM NO GOOD TO ANYONE IF I DON’T TAKE CARE OF MYSELF.
Spiritual Exhaustion
Spiritual exhaustion is real, and it can be dangerous, because it not only incapacitates your vision to see things in that realm, but it can damage others and flow over into your physical body. This is where I have been this past week. It manifests in different ways: no energy, lack of will to talk to God, avoiding all things church, neglecting Scripture reading, and so on. How do we get there? Many different ways, but if we want to lump them into one category, I would say it’s serving/pouring into others. For me, it was prayer. Yep, I’ve prayed myself into exhaustion. Don’t get me wrong, this is one area I’m okay feeling drained as a result of, but I know I can’t remain in this state. After corporate prayer, fasting, personal prayer, praying for others, and even reading about prayer over the past 2 weeks, my body and spirit have shot up red flags of depletion. Surprisingly enough, even though prayer got me to this place, prayer has helped restore me. Time with God, allowing others to pour into me, and plain old rest allow us to gather the strength needed to continue moving forward.
If you serve in church (and are committed to do so in excellence), I can say with confidence that you’ve probably experienced spiritual exhaustion. You can feel overworked and underappreciated. You will serve your bottom off with little to no acknowledgement all in the name of Jesus until you can no longer stand. So here’s where the thin line comes in. You can serve God with all your heart, soul, body, and mind and still allow yourself to be served, refreshed, and renewed. Don’t be too religious or deep; even Jesus rested. I believe one of the reasons damaging encounters happen in church is because servants are exhausted to the point that they no longer serve out of God’s love. The best analogy I’ve ever heard regarding this is serving from a tea cup and saucer. The tea cup is you, the liquid is whatever God has imparted in you. The saucer is for catching the liquid overflow. The saucer is what you should be serving out of. If you serve out of your cup, you will deplete yourself until you are empty. If you want to serve effectively and with love, you should be in a continual state of filling to the point of overflow, then you can be assured that you are serving God well.
All of the above is meant to say this: It’s okay to step aside and take the time you need to get to a place of restoration. You need to do it. The people around you need you to do it. Your family, your coworkers, your friends, your ministry, your church, and God need you to rest.