The Cure for Exhaustion
This is a post-election revised edition of a writing from earlier this year. I trust it to be needed by us all.
Okay, here we are. The morning after. Do you feel exhausted, empty, drained? Physical exhaustion. Mental exhaustion. Emotional exhaustion. Social exhaustion. 24 hours a day news exhaustion. The current climate in our country certainly is nothing short of chaos, absurd, frightening, divisive, and I could add any number of more adjectives, all of which lead us to exhaustion.
In my opinion, one of the toughest things in our crowded, loud, and chaotic world, is to create enough space and silence to find genuine rest and calm. Whether or not chaos finds us, or we create our own chaos, its effects all around us seep deep into our souls. Even when we are away from constant noise, our heart, mind, and souls are not really quieted. Even when we are at rest, our heart, mind, and souls are not restful. Even when we put our heads on the pillow to sleep, we don’t really sleep well, which then brings on even more fatigue.
This constant clutter in our heart, mind, soul also makes it difficult to hear God’s “still, small voice”. But if we are to follow Jesus in a serious life-changing way, we must find regular time to be quiet and listen. There are many voices competing for our attention and loyalty, and most often God is not the loudest of those voices.
While God is always by our side offering advice, He is not like The Great Gazoo in the old animated TV series, The Flintstones; that tiny green floating scientist who came to help Fred and Barney, but usually created more trouble than help.
Building the discipline of hearing God, waiting on God, resting in His presence, requires work. It begins with a desire to carve out space. It always requires giving up something, desiring to turn off the noise and find stillness (Psalm 37:7), find quietness (Zephaniah 3:17), find intimacy (James 4:8), find rest (Matthew 11:28-30).
The 23rd Psalm begins with these words – “The LORD is my shepherd; I have everything I need. He lets me rest in fields of green grass and leads me to quiet pools of fresh water. He gives me new strength” (vv.1-3a GNT).
Timothy Leary, the Harvard clinical psychologist, and of hippie fame, encouraged young people in the Sixties to “turn on, tune in, drop out.” While his countercultural phrase encouraged the usage of psychedelic drugs to find true consciousness, and that’s certainly not my advice, I do think that if we “turn on” a sensitivity to God and His presence, if we “tune in” by listening, and if we regularly “drop out” of the noise around us, we will “find” God and be better able to hear, and be changed by, His “still, small voice.”
“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” (Psalm 46:10).
“For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him” (Psalm 62:5).
“Teach me, and I will be silent; make me understand how I have gone astray” (Job 6:24).
“But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me” (Psalm 131:2).
“I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me” (Proverbs 8:17).
Do you desperately desire peace and calm, stillness and rest? Where are you looking for the cure for your exhaustion?
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