Beyond Exhaustion
November 21, 2004
Colossians 1:3-14
Luke 22:33-43
How many of you are tired? How many of you have felt your energy plunge in the last few weeks? Last Sunday as the youth, exhausted from their overnight, struggled to stay awake during worship I felt it was a great metaphor for our community right now. It is as if our communal level of exhaustion is doing the same…Struggling to stay awake, get focused, concentrate on what was going on, not to mention vision, create, reach out, grow.
I know over the past month as Cathy and I have been preparing for the move yesterday into the campus ministry house…With days off spent painting and cleaning the house, getting all the details in order, and then organizing the move day with packing and labeling…I told some of you…it was the one thing pushing me over the edge. Do you know the feeling, you’re juggling all the tasks, appointments, relationships, everything is rolling along nicely and then that one thing enters the picture, upsetting the rhythm, and you end up juggling out of sync, wobbling, saving, grabbing and using way too much energy to keep it all going…It’s a scramble instead of a rhythmic juggle. Do you know it? And after a week of trying to pull this off, with no time for recovery, no time away, you begin to feel tired in waves…Too many waves pile up into full blown exhaustion…Do you know it? Our culture is big on luring us all into this exhaustion. Our culture is big on demanding this exhaustion from each of us as the expectation. But, our Scriptures today are crying out something else…So, I thought we’d have the Top Ten ways to get Beyond Exhaustion.
- Acknowledge God
Recognize that there is something bigger than ourselves. There is something beyond us. There is something wider and deeper than our finite selves…There is something that calls to us, pushes us, pulls us to be more than we are…Recognize we are connected to a source of life that can rejuvenate, invigorate, inspire us at any time, at any point no matter where we are on life’s journey. We don’t need to know it all, ask it all, find it all, solve it all…There is something bigger than us we so we can let some of it be beyond our finitude.
- Knowledge of God
Get to know this Source of Life. Question. Study. Ask questions. Talk to people. Wonder. Proclaim. Discuss. Probe yourself for what you know and journal your thoughts. Read books about God, the work of God, how people have come to know God. Talk to your friends about the role God plays in films and on TV and how you agree or disagree and why. Join a Bible study class. Listening and dialogue are two ways that energy levels increase…When we hear ideas that gel with our own coming from other people it energizes the conversation. The visioning team has tagged this getting “lit up and energized.” As people of faith we are continually learning God in new and various ways. Sharing our experiences about God helps validate our faith relationships which helps us all feel supported and not so isolated.
- Take time to Prepare: Be equipped
Jesus reminds the disciples in the reading for today that sometimes we will take nothing and have all of our needs met. At other times we will need to be prepared. This world throws us into all sorts of situations in life: celebration, joy as well as crisis and death. When we spend time using our days of living as a ministry of preparation for what comes next…our tool boxes will be overflowing for handling the daily tasks. Having the tools to fight exhaustion and its many faces helps us live beyond it.
- Thank God joyfully
Have you seen our purple mountains’ majesty? Have you seen a sunrise or sunset? Have you looked into the eyes of a newborn? Have you held the hand of one who is ill? Have you noticed the green grass in the park? Have you seen the flowers peaking out of the oleander bushes? Have you heard a song that stirred your soul? Have you laughed until you cried? Have you lunched with a friend? Been hugged by a child? Has breath entered and left your body? Have you begun another day? Had enough to eat? A place to sleep? Family to gather? Thank God. Give thanks. Do it often. Remind yourself…Life is a gift. Every moment is amazing. Thank God. Thank God. Gratitude ebbs away exhaustion. A life of gratitude lives beyond exhaustion.
- Patience
Sometimes we work so hard to force something to happen, we forget that God’s time is another reality. I was least convinced of this than anything else until I met you. The 19 years I waited to get here around years 16, 17, 18 seemed too long. My patience wore thin, my job search seemed endless, I was beyond exhaustion. Every day you remind me that this God time, Kairos, is something that allows amazing gifts to be drawn together when we’re all ready. Patience for what this moment is teaching, patience for this ministry of preparation, patience for today all leads to living beyond exhaustion…We’re not waiting for a day, a year, a moment, an occasion, we’re instead living today for today. God’s blessings, gifts, and moments today. And, it is enough for today.
- Get away and be alone
Jesus was constantly leaving the crowds and getting away. He spent time with the disciples, time with the crowds, time with his adversaries, time learning, time teaching, but he also took a lot of time away. Time away and alone. There is nothing like quiet time: journaling, praying, listening, meditating to connect in that quiet, personal way. Nothing can replace those moments where you quiet yourself to connect with your God. The One who knows you better than yourself. The One who loves you without condition. The One who knows all that you can be, all that you are. But, it takes time to get away, get quiet, and feed your soul. Jesus did it often, as should we.
- Pray
A great thing to do during quiet time alone is pray. A great thing to do stopped in traffic is pray. A great thing to do for 15 minutes every day is pray. Chuck Ballard, the chair of Membership, printed these great cards up for the council reminding us of several ways to get into the habit of praying. The presence of the Spirit can be an adrenaline rush. The voice of a call can propel us beyond any of our dreams or visions. The relationship with something bigger than ourselves and this place can keep us balanced through the crisis and death as well as the love and joy. Talking and listening to God quickens our relationships with the Great One. Unless we pray we’re only studying faith not living faith. Sharing with God. Sharing what’s happening at the core of our lives. Sharing the minutia and the great details helps us live beyond exhaustion for we are no longer living alone.
- Ask to be released from times of trial…as well as God’s will be done: Expressions of fear don’t extinguish hope
Sometimes I have heard people say we can only pray when we are acceptable to God. We can only pray from a place of obedience and grace. We have many wonderful examples in our Tradition of Jesus and other saints of the church praying for release from a bad situation, a crisis, an illness. We don’t always get what we want, but we are encouraged to always speak the words that are in our hearts. God is there. Our fear, our questions, our anger and rage…Our laughter, our joy none of it can extinguish the hope God has for us. Living beyond exhaustion allows us to share all of our feelings with our God: raw, unfiltered, honest feelings…
- Be metaphorical instead of literal: Jesus is our sword
Jesus LOVED a good metaphor: parables, comparisons, contrasts…Jesus is speaking to his disciples about the shift in cultural experience. He says, this time is different, in the past you went out with nothing and all your needs were met. But, this time, you will have to go out equipped. Be equipped with me…Use me as the example of hostility…you don’t need a sword, only me. Of course, the disciples take this metaphor literally and start rationing out the number of swords needed to fight. Still, Jesus just shifts courses and moves to another dialogue and teaching method…a new metaphor they might understand more easily. We don’t have to all speak the same language. We don’t all have to “understand” at the same time. We can live beyond exhaustion by getting comfortable with many people, in many places, on life’s journey.
- Gospel is a word of truth (fruit) that has come to you and it fosters hope!
This is my personal favorite. God loves each of us. God loves each of us without condition. And, out of that love gives us words of truth. They’re different for each of us…They are those things people say to us, or we discover within ourselves, that cut us to the core. They are those learnings that burst with possibility. And force us to see things, do things, experience things differently…These are the gospel words…Words of truth that God plants within each of us and these fruits foster hope. Nothing breaks up exhaustion like Gospel truths. Truths like…as frightening as it was for Jesus to stand in opposition to the institutions of church and government at the time…As frightening as it was for the early church to stand in opposition to the institutions of church and government at the time…As frightening as it is for the present day faith community to stand in opposition to the institutions of church and government of our time...God is bigger and offers peace, presence, and calm. God will not allow us to be there alone. God will use all evil for good. God will allow us to live beyond this place, this reality, this life here, now, yesterday, and tomorrow. Our God is still speaking and will be tireless in breathing hope into the gospel words of our lives.
Let us begin living beyond our exhaustion…Our beautiful, amazing, life giving God is calling to each of us by name as we are held in the palm of God’s hand. Let’s begin and let us begin it today!