"For me, the hardest word in the English
language is no. I would like to say yes to everyone
and everything, but obedience to Christ requires
me at times to say no. Like the gardener pruning
the vine, I must constantly trim away unnecessary
activities if new life is to spring forth."
Dwight Carlson
Tiredness
and fatigue are common problems in most societies.
Many people are tired. You know you are fatigued
when you are experiencing a lack of energy, a
loss of a sense of well-being, weariness, an overall
unpleasantness, no ambition, and a loss of interest.
This does not sound good! Most of us, if we were
to really admit it, are tired of being tired.
Stress can produce tiredness and fatigue. Tiredness
can be a real enemy because it can bring dissatisfaction,
restlessness, irritability, a loss of joy, depression
and so many other negative things. But God knows
our energy capacity and never requires more than
we are capable of achieving. We need to set appropriate
limits and learn to say no. We also need to
evaluate the emotional gauge in our life.
Emotional
Fatigue
"I
have now committed myself to installing an emotional
gauge in the center of my dashboard and learning
how to read it. I take responsibility to manage
the emotional reservoir in my life." Bill
Hybels
When
we are tired over a long period of time, we must
look at the emotional area of our life. We
may be emotionally fatigued and not even be aware
it. If we want to walk in overall health, we must
look at our emotional as well as our physical
strength. It is important that we know what activities
drain our emotional reservoir. These are tasks
that sap us of energy in just a short time. We
may be oblivious to the intense drain some activities
are having on us emotionally.
It
is important to look at three gauges on the dashboard
of your life in order to be healthy. The first
gauge is the spiritual area of your life. Ask
yourself questions like, "How is my spiritual
life?" "How is my quiet time?"
"Am I praying?" If this area
reads normal, then you know you are doing all
right spiritually. The next gauge is the physical
gauge. Ask yourself questions like, "Am
I eating healthy?" "Am I exercising?"
"Am I getting enough rest?" "Am
I feeling well physically?" If that battery
is "ok", then you know you are
doing all right physically.
If
these two batteries seem to be "ok"
but you know something is wrong, you may be drained
emotionally. If you don't feel like building
relationships, if people drain you, or you want
to quit ministry or change jobs, something may
be wrong. You may need to recharge your emotional
battery, but you must realize that this is a slow
process that takes time. You may be asking the
question, "How do you recharge when you
are emotionally drained?" You recharge
by doing something totally different than your
work or ministry. You may want to go jogging,
read a book, listen to music or play golf.
Other
keys to emotional recharging is using your major
spiritual gifts and learning to wait upon the
Lord. This will breathe life back into you and
energize you. Working hard in areas that you are
not gifted in will drain you quickly. Don't let
people pull you away from using your primary gifts.
Don't let busyness take you away from waiting
on the Lord for His emotional and physical recharging.
When you minister with the gifts God put in you,
you have a new passion for ministry.
"He
gives power to the faint and weary, and to him
who has no might He increases strength (causing
it to multiply and making it to abound). Even
youths shall faint and be weary, and (selected)
young men shall feebly stumble and fall exhausted;
But those who wait for the Lord (who expect,
look for, and hope in Him) shall change and
renew their strength and power; they shall lift
their wings and mount up (close to God) as eagles
(mount up to the sun); they shall run and not
be wary, they shall walk and not faint or become
tired" (Isaiah 40:29-31, Amplified).
Each
one of us needs to learn to live a healthy, balanced
life. We can't work 70 hours a week and last
very long. We need to learn to be marathon runners.
We must learn to monitor our spiritual, physical,
and emotional gauges so that we can minister for
a lifetime. Can you run at the pace you are presently
living at and still be running 20 or 30 years
from now? Take inventory and learn to live a balanced
life. Once in a while my husband and I will spend
a few days in the country, and it does us a lot
of good. I love to work but I am learning to take
time out. I encourage you to not neglect your
emotional battery. If it is running low, take
the necessary time to recharge. You want to
finish the race healthy and well-balanced for
God's glory.
"Replenishing
emotional strength takes time - usually more
time than it took to drain. The best analogy
I can offer is a car battery. If you sit in
a parking lot and run all your car's accessories
- radio, headlight, heater, horn, rear defogger,
power windows - you can probably sap the battery
in about ten minutes. After that massive drain,
suppose you then take the battery to a service
station and say, 'I'd like this battery charged.
I'll be back to pick it up in ten minutes.'
What would they tell you? 'No, we're going to
put the battery on our overnight charger…
A slow, consistent charge is the best way to
bring a battery back to full power.' Likewise,
to properly recuperate from an emotionally draining
activity takes time." Bill Hybels
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