I have a question to pose to all of you this week. Do you ever get tired? Now, I’m not talking about the kind of tired that comes from a hard day at work or a tough day in the classroom. I am talking about the kind of tired that leaves you in a catatonic state without the ability to function normally. The kind of tired that permeates your entire body and brain and leaves you feeling empty and without the desire to want to get up and do anything at all.
Ever feel that kind of tired?
Well, I gotta tell ya, that is the kind of tired that has hit me this week. After two weeks of battling a respiratory infection and coughing my lungs up for days and day and days, I finally reached the point where I said…”nope. Can’t do it. Not gonna even try.”
When you get to that point there is not a whole lot you can do. In my case, a day of laying in bed doing nothing didn’t help much. About the only thing that helped me at all was my grandson’s 1st birthday party. But as soon as that was over it was right back to the empty tank. The well was dry. The mojo was gone. The joy of the Lord that renews our strength had left the building.
Late Sunday night a glimmer of light began to shine. The Lord is always really good about finding a way to bring light into our life, if we let Him. I was sitting in bed and a thought just magically popped into my old noggin, and I sent a text.
On the other end of that text was an old friend. An old friend that I have not seen in decades, but still a friend that was quick to provide answers that were much needed. I asked her about a song that she once sang that always made me smile. At first she didn’t even remember the song, but with a little bit of memory jogging it came to her. A quick search on Youtube came up with a great version of the song, and it conjured memories for both her and I.
The song, “he was there all the time” really speaks to me. It was God’s way of telling me that I was not alone in my fatigue, in fact, He was there all the time. It reminds me that we often get tired from the cares of life because we too often decide to carry them ourselves, instead of laying them at His feet where they belong.
It is so much like a parent and child. As parents we try to take on all of the worries and cares of the world so our kids don’t have to shoulder them. So man times we want to stand in the gap for our kids and sometimes even family and friends. We take the weight of the world on our shoulders and carry it for too many, and we get tired.
I, and all of us, need to learn that we have someone that will carry our burdens for us. He is someone that wants to be our “Heavenly daddy” and be a shield, a protector and a burden carrier. He is the answer to the energy sapping tired that I spoke of earlier.
And, like the songs says…He is there, all the time.
Okay, so I know I got a little preachy this week. Sometimes the old preacher in me comes out. But, if you are having that same kind of tired, now you have the answer. So do I.
Now it is just a matter of remembering where to go, so the tired like that never finds its way back.
