Thought
If I can just make it to Christmas. If I just push through until summer. I will just finish this project. You know the feeling. Your mind says keep going, keep pushing, but your heart is telling you to stop. Most times the mind wins. So, we keep running from one commitment to the next, main-lining caffeine, and all the while our body is praying stop! We need to repent, to ourselves. We owe our hearts an apology for pushing and persisting instead of calling ‘timeout.’
The road to burnout has warning signs along the way. Restlessness. Anxiety. Outbursts. Fatigue. Exhaustion. Sadness. The longer we keep driving without a rest, the further we find ourselves from equilibrium.
But there is more to rest than just lazing around watching Netflix and eating your way through a bag of Doritos. In his book, ‘The Way of the Heart’ Henri Nouwen writes, ‘When we have found our rest in God, we can do nothing other than minister. God’s rest will be visible wherever we go and to whomever we speak.’ Your estate is rife with tired souls trying to find their way through the dark. Are we any different?
Imagine if the key to transforming your community came from scaling back programmes and decluttering the diary. From withdrawing from busyness and entering God’s rest. The closer we draw to God’s heart, the easier it is to discern his rhythms. Through prayer we find rest for our tired hearts. Energy for our fatigued lives. Sharpness to our vision. Weariness is a reminder to change the source of our energy, to switch from self-powered to God-powered. It’s only when we charge our spiritual battery will we find the get-up-and-go to face another day. When God’s presence surrounds us, we are less bothered about pushing through projects- we find ourselves presented with opportunities, with words we might not ordinarily think of ourselves, and we present as attractive to people.
Let’s pray…
Lord,
I come to you tired from all the games I have been playing.
My brain is full and my body aches.
My emotions are up and down, over and under.
I want to leave all this coming and going behind.
I want to enter your rest.
I want to feel whole again.
I give you the most difficult parts of my work, the hardest times of my day.
I am sorry for pushing through when my heart told me to stop.
Help me to declutter myself.
Help me to slow down.
To breathe.
In this moment I choose to breathe in your Spirit.
I choose to exhale the stresses and strains.
I praise you God for caring for me.
I invite your peace to rule my heart.
Amen.