Our hearts are bound and tuned to the same fatigue principles and limitations as our bodies are to needing rest
Fatigue leads to injury. That's just the way of life. For a weight lifter, that is a beneficial consequence for growing muscle and strength. For an athlete, that could mean their career. Either way, when we don't yield to the signs of fatigue, injury is sure to follow . . . and injury leads to pain.
We are all very familiar with pain and we all handle it differently. The problem is the pain is simply an indicator of a need. That need is rest.
The cost of healing is rest.
Without healing, the pain won't subside . . . it cannot . . . for it is simply doing its job. It is meant to be an indicator of injury, alerting us to the exact locations of where the problem is.
We can numb the pain or temporarily take it offline, but any effort towards a permanent solution without rest just won't ever bare healing. Whether a ligament issue or broken bone, even with surgery there must be a time where you rest the injury so it can properly heal. We are wise to head the warnings of our bodies in alerting us to an injury in which is the source of the pain.
I have learned the hard way, especially with ligament injuries, if you don't rest, it will never fully heal. We don't realize our hearts are built in the same fashion, bound by the same principles.
Rest is necessary for the recovery of our hearts.
We may wonder where the passion we once had went or maybe why we just can’t find joy anymore. Maybe we are stuck in a cycle of constant worry as it breeds stress in everything we do. Perhaps we have simply become numb to it all, sort of setting aside emotions we just can't handle anymore.
I know I have days where everything seems to be too much . . . where I cannot find peace because I am on the edge of losing my mind with every scenario that goes wrong in my eyes.
Whether towards our relationship with the Father or our wife . . . decisions being made in our careers or family, we will always be half a man without the proper rest we so often neglect our souls from finding.
Our hearts are bound and tuned to the same fatigue principles and limitations as our bodies are to needing rest.
While I am rock climbing, my muscles may be fine and ready for more, but my skin is screaming at me to throw in the towel. Sadly, I tend to wait until I become injured to slow down and rest where as I could have maybe avoided getting injured in the first place. I usually push myself pretty hard in most things I do, and with that comes injury without the proper doses of rest mixed in with pushing myself.
How often do I do that in life? How often do I demand more from myself than I am able? How often do I put those unrealistic expectations on those around me?
I guarantee something . . . that if I am doing that to myself, I am doing that to God . . . and have already done that to others.
Even now, as typing is a struggle, I am regretting not resting like I should have because now my pointer finger is having to forgo a forced “resting” period for the next few weeks.
I injured a ligament or two rocking climbing so I am forced to let it rest. I was actually even climbing still, using the 4 uninjured fingers I had left. Of course that was causing those fingers to fatigue and slowly show signs of early over-use type injury. So I didn’t injure those too, I decided to just take a break from climbing all together. Wow, what a revelation.
Why is resting so hard??
Why does it feel like you're somehow missing out on life when you slow down or somehow not achieving much of anything? Why does rest feel like such a waste of time . . . at least until our heads hit our pillows and resting takes a more literal stance in which we gladly yield.
The thing is when we don't rest, it's as sensible as trying to drive a car without gas. It just won’t work the way it is meant to no matter how hard we push it.
Visualize this for a moment.
When we don’t rest we are literally pushing our car around thinking we are accomplishing something when all the while we have a perfectly functional fuel tank just waiting for the necessary gasoline the vehicle needs to drive.
How much more would we accomplish if accomplishing is indeed what we are after if we would just rest our hearts as well as our bodies?
As obvious as it is for a car needing fuel, our hearts are the same way. I just wish it was that obvious to us. Whether it is our careers or our passions or even our ambitious desires wanting to achieve something more, we can become lost in that thing we cannot break away from.
It all starts in our hearts, for within ourselves is where all of life springs forth.
All of the “why” we do things and “what” drives us is found in the intangible terrain of our hearts. Our souls need attention and our hearts the same way. When we neglect ourselves, we cut our legs out from under us in a matter of speaking and we are less of who we could be... who we ought to be. So although it may feel like we are missing out, we are actually making investments by depositing the necessary fuel our hearts need to drive us to be the best man we can. That has to do with our desires and passions, our hopes and dreams. It has to do with the intangibles that are a little more mysterious then we would like them to be.
When we neglect those parts of us, we are living on "empty". In times when I feel as though I am doing nothing right and the stresses of life’s demands seem more than I can handle, even moment to moment, when I slow everything down and sacrifice just 30min with the Father, it rejuvenates my inner workings in ways that is nothing less than supernatural.
He connects loose ends I didn’t even see were just hanging around. Emotions of anger and frustration that kept coming out towards those around me are reigned in and soothed by His voice of understanding as He listens to me just vent about all that, at least to me, is going wrong.
It has taken me a hour before for me to find rest, just taking a walk in silence at one of my favorite parks, letting the peace and quiet wash over me like a soothing ointment to my soul. It is there where we find the most wholeness we will ever find in this life, alone with our Creator.
Slowing down is fuel for our souls. Spending time alone with God is oxygen to our hearts.
I remember reading an article about a young man who was a new father and with his baby daughter came the rush of middle-of-the-night feedings and the constant juggling of working hard and helping his wife when he came home.
He described it all as the hardest season he had ever been in, although it was quite rewarding at the same time.
He went on to say that we would typically all agree there would be no time for taking breaks or resting, let alone getting away with God for a bit. But he said that was the very reason why he did it more so. Because of what that season demanded from him, it was even more solely imperative to make time to spend with God. He knew what was at stake there . . . those he loved most here on earth looking to him. He wanted to be every bit of the man he know he couldn't be if he was constantly fatigued.
Is that you?
Is that how you think? The more that is on your plate, the more imperative it is for you to take time to slow down and rest at the feet of your Creator? I hope I have made it clear that it is a struggle for me for sure. You're not alone in battling fatigue . . . and you are defiantly not alone in giving in to the lie that I can make it on last week's time I spent with God.
Take some time right now to look at where you are in your life and all the moving parts constantly at work around you.
You need that time with Him. Start right now and be intentional, even if it is a few minutes.
We have an enemy that will do anything to distract us, talk us out of it, and give us a billion reasons why we just can’t do it . . . we just can’t swing it.
I have heard a pastor tell me to my face, “I just don’t have the time to spend alone with God.”
If we don’t fight for that time, guess what, it won’t just happen! There is a revelation for you . . .
And here is a reminder of another.
“But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer.” NLT
“But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” NIV
“But He would withdraw to desolate places and pray.” ESV
Here is what is amazing about this.
Jesus knew something, a truth about the realities of our world.
Life would keep going without Him there in the midst of it. He knew that everything was determined by His father in heaven and apart from Him, nothing would be that already is.
What was most important to Jesus was the position of His heart and where His priorities lay. What He did wasn’t for the sake of accomplishing something or to gain fame amongst the people. Everything Jesus did was to please His father and for Him, that was enough.
He wasn’t missing out on anything when He would “often withdraw to lonely places” and I guarantee everything was as it should be while He spent that time alone with the Father.
Why is it so important to get away to “desolate” and “lonely” places?
Why the “wilderness?”
To me it’s simple.
We withdraw from the world . . . from our life’s reality . . . to free ourselves to drink from His. We must let go of our own lives and all that entails if we are to have a clean break from ourselves. We must become empty handed to recieve all that God our Father wants us to take hold of.
This is temporary of course but necessary.
Maybe for some it is a new perspective. Maybe for others it is a shield of renewed faith as we hear our Father’s voice speaking truth and commands to our hearts. Maybe for most of us it is just being in His presence and remembering how much He fiercely loves us and is watching over us.
And we can also rest in this truth:
As we take that time to get away to be with Him, the world will be fine.
Our responibiliteis will be surely waiting for us.
Those around us, spouses, children, and whoever else asks of us to offer our strength to them . . . they will be there too, fine and waiting.
We would be foolish to think that Jesus didn’t have every excuse we use to not spend time with our Father.
(Shortly after healing a man of leprosy)
“But the news about Him was spreading farther, and large crowds kept gathering to hear Him and to be healed of their illness. But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray [in seclusion].”
- Luke 5:15-16 AMP
