Tired
At this point, I am treating this Medium page as a Facebook wall circa 2009.
“What are you feeling?” Tired…Just tired.
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The direction that I want to take on this is not to simply list my grievances for the day or perhaps my lack of coping with the troubles of the day. I think it is alright to feel tired so long as you don’t use it as an excuse to not show up tomorrow, or I suppose even now. That last part might be controversial, and I am exploring it as I am typing, but the idea that admitting to and coming to terms with tiredness is like getting a Gatorade during an intense basketball game. You don’t rest to keep sitting on the bench. You rest to get yourself back in the game.
Biblically (yes I am a Christian), there is the example of Elijah the prophet. Elijah had just demonstrated the realness of God to all of the pagan worshippers who abandoned the true God in the kingdom. Instead of people coming to their senses, however, they chased him away into exile. There, he found himself, a prophet of God who had performed many miracles by God’s strength, alone under a tree. Then, begins a series of events orchestrated by God to get Elijah back on his feet. I don’t want to rehash all of this, as I am getting my insight into the text from a sermon by Presbyterian pastor Timothy Keller. You can look into exactly what He does yourself, but the significance of this biblical example of direct divine intervention into the affairs of one man of God who had lost hope is that God sees His people in their tiredness and gives them the strength to get back up.
When life keeps shooting arrows at your chest, the armor of God will protect those in Christ. James writes to the persecuted first century church to “consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:2–4). Peter exhorts his reader to “make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins” (2 Peter 5–9). There’s a lot in that Scripture, but the gist can be found in the phrase “increasing measure”. The Christian walk is full of trials, but these are not meant to defeat people rather to refine them. Getting through a day like to day with my faith in tact will better prepare me to live tomorrow a bit more holy and ready to take on the world.
Praise God for that!
