“You know the antidote to exhaustion is not necessarily rest. The antidote to exhaustion is whole-heartedness. The reason you’re so exhausted is that much of what you’re doing you have no affection for.”- Brother David Steindl-Rast, Benedictine monk
“I [Moses] cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me.”- Numbers 11:14
Brian Jones concludes Chapter 2 of Finding Favor as he asserts that it’s not the pressures people face that ails them deep down. Rather, it’s the direction their feet are pointed. In other words, we’re capable of enduring much when we love what we’re doing.
For example, Pastor Jones points out, Moses faced great stress when he confronted Pharaoh. Yet, the showdown never debilitated Moses. Instead, he stood toe-to-toe with Pharaoh. The more Pharaoh dished out, the more Moses dished back. He came alive inside through this leadership challenge. But Moses wilted in the face of something he lacked affection for – the whining “rabble” in the wilderness.
As a result, Moses requested one favor from God – that he not face his own ruin. Thus, Moses failed to understand that God showed him favor by not granting Moses’ request. Moses needed to realize that humility never results from success, but from humbling. When you do something for a long period of time, you no longer have affection for it, and it’s impossibe to escape, that evicerates you of all matters of pride.
In conclusion, Oswald Chamber summarizes:
“When God gets us alone through suffering, heartbreak, temptation, disappointment, sickness, or by thwarted dessires, a broken friendship, or a new friendship — when He gets us absolutely alone, and we are totally speechless, unable to ask even one question, then He begins to teach us.”
Today’s question: How do you find whole-heartedness the antidote to exhaustion? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “A wildfire of holy discontent”