The mama with a messy bun (not the good kind), wearing yesterday’s clothes, streaked with baby spit-up.
The teenager who's ready for a 15-hour nap after a “lit” church youth camp.
The red-faced, gasping-for-air, not-young-anymore guy who has just run a 10K.
Here’s what all of these folks have in common. They are all exhausted. Exceedingly so. Yet, it’s a good kind of exhaustion. Perhaps even an exhilarating exhaustion. Joy and purpose undergird their tiredness.
But there is another kind of fatigue. A soul weariness. A depleted inner being. It’s an empty exhaustion as opposed to an exhilarating exhaustion.
I’ve experienced this version of tiredness. When I’m overwhelmed—yet hollowed out. King Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes would call it 'chasing after the wind'. Essentially, it’s running around in circles. Unpoetic but true.
Perhaps you’re walking through a wasteland of weariness, too.
If, like me, you’re grappling with tiredness of spirit, here are three questions to ask yourself.
This is not about putting ourselves first. It’s about putting God first. The world says that we need to invest in ourselves before we can give of ourselves. 'You can't pour out from an empty cup', culture says with surprising illumination. But culture's version of a 'full cup' is vastly different from what Scripture says. It's primarily about pursuing one's own agenda and pampering oneself. But Scripture reminds us to seek God first (Matthew 6:33). As we pursue Him before all else, our priorities begin to align in a way that is life-giving. When we quench ourselves with the Living Water, we are able to pour out without feeling unduly drained.
It’s easy to connect busyness with significance. It’s easy to confuse activity with purpose. We end up piling on the to-dos because it gives us a sense of worth. But God hasn’t asked us to 'do it all'.
Ephesians 2:10 reminds us that God has prepared good works in advance for us to do. Not every work, but good works that He has planned for you to put our hands to.
If we find ourselves emotionally and physically exhausted because we’ve said yes too many times, these might be good questions to ask: Is this something God has called me to? Or am I saying yes in an attempt to find my worth through my work?
God has marked out a race for you to run (Hebrews 12:1). But sometimes, we end up zigzagging between lanes, trying to prove ourselves to others. The fallout? A sense of purposeless exhaustion.
Often, we don’t press pause because we need to feel in control. We think: 'If I don’t show up and do these 313 things, the world will fall apart'. We’re exhausted because instead of depending on God’s strength, we rely on our own planning and effort.
Essentially, we don’t trust God enough to rest.
Busyness becomes our default setting. But busyness comes with a hefty price tag. The cost of being overtly, obsessively busy is that we are excessively exhausted and exceedingly empty.
Jesus came to this earth that we might have life and have it to the full. The full life is not an exhausting life. The full life is founded in Jesus and is strengthened first in His presence. The full life walks in the good works He has prepared for us to do. The full life trusts that God is always in control—so we can faithfully steward what He has given us while resting in His sovereign care.
Photo by Tusik Only on Unsplash
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All 3 questions are worth pondering. Thank you Susan.