Today’s lesson is about having only so much energy to do the things you need to do.

Today, I am tired and grumpy. I don’t know who created the evil that is Daylight Saving Times, but with two young kids and a busy work schedule, it’s left me exhausted. When you take that and add to it the normal things about humanity that can tick us off, it’s been a bit rough. At the same time, today has been great, getting closer to extending offers for the first class of our college, seeing my daughter’s work at the education fair, my doctoral program kicking into high gear, and the Lord is by my side. These are all great things, but yet, I’m grumpy. This grumpiness is something I think we all feel. We only have so much emotional energy in the tank. Only so many ways we can spend it. Then we overspend, just like we can do with our finances, and we get into trouble. Burnout, frayed relationships, and an empty tank. Those things that didn’t bug us, now do. The people we would spend time with, but just don’t care because our tanks are empty.

The joy of the Lord is there. He will refill out tanks. We just need to listen, pray, and allow our tanks to be filled. As a caveat, we must also be careful, when our tanks are full, where we spend that precious energy.

Image from Mental Floss

“By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.” – Genesis 2:2-3

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” – Matthew 11:28

“Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place.” – Mark 6:31-32

The scripture is filled with rest. If God, the highest, the most powerful, needed a day to rest after creating everything don’t we? If Jesus told people to come to him to rest, shouldn’t we? If the disciples were told strongly to go and get some rest, shouldn’t we? When we don’t have rest, we are irritated. We make emotional rash decisions. But yet, we or I should say I, still try to do more. One more day. One more meeting. One more, whatever.  Time to follow the word, and rest.

Are you willing to take a breather? Are you willing to follow God’s example and rest? Are you willing to not spend energy where it isn’t productive?

#72of365 #FaithBites #FaithJourney