Tired Management

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Sometimes the road is long. Sometimes the work schedule takes it out of you. Fatigue not only affects us physically it can also lead to spiritual lethargy. The rubber simply isn’t meeting the road. You’re tired and flat.

Back before I ventured down the college path, I planned to write a post on time management. However, now that I’m beat at the end of the work day, my focus has shifted to what little time and energy I have to work with. Now I’m thinking, How am I going to manage my tiredness both physically and spiritually?

Physical Fatigue

Here’s the recipe I’m working with:

Take one part sleep issues and add in working with children all day. Give that a good mix and throw in rising thyroid numbers. Toss that in the slow cooker and allow it to simmer all day.

When I arrive home all I want to do is have a bite to eat and climb into bed. Then the weekend arrives and there is housework that needs my attention. I’m managing, but I’m tired, and connecting with God has been a struggle.

A phone call was made to my doctor to request a dose increase on my thyroid medication. This may resolve some of my physical fatigue. But what about my spiritual fatigue? I’m not getting anywhere.

Spiritual Fatigue 

You’ve got to ask for what you need from God as well. Actually, that should be first and foremost. I don’t always get things in the right order. Therefore, reminders are great when you’re flat.

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone asking receives; and the one seeking finds; and to the one knocking, it will be opened.

Matthew 7:7 – 8

Physical and spiritual strength are both valuable commodities. Nevertheless, they need to be spent wisely. Might God allow me to continue going in circles or completely flat until I’m ready to invest that energy where He wants me to invest? Yes, quite probably. (The Isrealites wandered the desert for 40 years because they didn’t trust in God’s provisions.)

If ever in doubt, Scripture answers these questions, and the Holy Spirit guides believers in the right direction, helping us to understand what God desires from us.

When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. 

James 4:3

I can in fact do this sometimes. Not because I’m purely stuck on myself or a pleasure hound. As believers, we may also become wedged in a rut for the opposite reason; times become tough, mountains become tiresome, pleasures can diminish and the road ahead doesn’t seem to be getting any easier. We might need a bit of a nudge.

I think of God’s words to Jeremiah and how this prophet of God must have felt hearing God’s words. 

“If you have raced against others on foot, and they have tired you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in open country, how can you live in the jungle along the Jordan River?”

Jeremiah 12:5

That doesn’t sound very comforting, Lord…. Nevertheless, I love this Scripture because it’s a heart to heart with our Father God. ❤ (Hebrews 12:4-11)

God was giving Jeremiah loving correction and a heads up. He wasn’t about to allow his appointed prophet to collapse under the pressure. This prophet would need strength to continue the path that the Lord had started him on. It was going to become more difficult. 

Struggling spiritually is a natural reaction to constantly pushing up hill and facing difficult tasks. Jesus understands. In fact he didn’t physically relish the idea of going to the cross. So He took his burdens to God the Father. As Jesus was given authority of heaven and earth, we are called to go to Jesus Himself.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest

Matthew 11:28

It’s in our times of physical and spiritual fatigue when the believer needs strength most of all. The first step is to ask, with the right motives of course.  Jesus did just this before he went to the cross, requesting prayerful support from his disciples (because there is strength in numbers Mathew 18:20, Ecclesiastes 4:9-12) Then, as he prayed He continued to model what His Father desired.

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Jesus Understands Fatigue, Overwhelm, and Sorrow 

Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.”  He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”

Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”

When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy.

Matthew 26:36-46