Trouble with a capital 'T'

War, death, destruction, personal pain, heart ache — trouble of every kind is all around us. Grim way to start a blog but it is true isn’t it?  There is no escaping the fact that life is full of trouble, and to quote the Music Man… “Trouble, oh we got trouble, Right here in River City! With a capital “T”.  Clearly not just in River city ;)

It can be easy to be overwhelmed, to lose hope and to want to turn away and that is when my mind turns to the words of Jesus in John 16:33, where Jesus offers words of hope:

Jesus tells his disciples “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Jesus reminds us that he knows that there will always be trouble in the world in which we live, and he gives it to us straight. “You will have trouble.”

Not only that, Jesus is telling his disciples that he was about to face his own greatest trouble - death on the cross. That’s why he told them in the previous verse: “Yet, I am not alone, for my Father is with me.”

In the the same way Jesus is telling us that it is only through Him that we can find peace in the midst of our trouble.  And when he says, “take heart”, Jesus is cheering us on.  He’s telling us to keep going, to live a life that shows everyone around us the source of our hope!

Remember that book that became a movie, Eat, Pray, Love?  Well I think there could be a sequel:  Eat, Pray, Love, Give, Pray, Serve!  We may need to work on the title but I hope you get the sentiment ;) In the midst of our trouble — we don’t stop, or give up — we continue to do these things to demonstrate the love of Jesus in our community and beyond.

Jesus is saying Don’t Give Up… Why? Because he has overcome the world.

Jesus has already won and we will see this fully in the end!

So what do we need to do?  Take heart and make Jesus’ promise to you real to a troubled world.

Refresh and be refreshed

I love meeting with people over coffee (or tea, or whatever).  I love learning about their lives, hearing their stories.  I feel connected and honoured to get a glimpse of who people are, something I don’t always get to experience on a Sunday morning.

Last week I had such a meeting. This individual had requested to meeting because they were going through something and wanted to talk it out. Just before I left the house I received a disturbing text. My spirit was disturbed, I felt anxious and distracted. I knew I was not in the right head space to meet anyone. I contemplated cancelling the meeting but I knew that it was important to go, they were hurting and I wanted to be an encouragement to them…so I prayed and met this dear soul for “a coffee.”

What I discovered is what I knew all along — God is good.

I was so depleted (and on the verge of tears) when I went into the coffee shop and by the time we hugged to say goodby I was refreshed.

A generous person will prosper, whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. (Proverbs 11:25)

I don’t know about you but I have found that in the toughest season, when I am feeling down and struggling with my own life circumstances the opportunity to listen and encourage another always ends up encouraging my own heart.

Have you ever experienced that?

This Proverb illustrates a paradigm that is easier said than done and doesn’t always seem to be true at face value, does it?

Does a generous person always receive more in abundance?

Does a person who blesses others always feel refreshed and filled up?

I think the principle in this Proverb is rooted in the fact that it is God who provides and supplies our every need.

Prosperity can certainly, and often, refers to material abundance but scripture always refers to prosperity in abundance in eternally significant ways. What I mean is, God provides for our physical needs and our emotional needs and our spiritual needs and when we give of our resources — time and emotional energy — we are not pulling from our own resources but that of Christ.

So whatever you are going through today don’t underestimate how you might be refreshed when you seek to refresh another person.

Maybe you know someone in need? Someone who could use some encouragement? Before you question your own capacity — ask God if you are being led to bless them. And then ask God to provide, knowing that it is out of God’s provision that you show generosity or encouragement to others.

And when you trust God to do so, trust God to do a work in your heart as well. Our God is a God of unlimited strength, power and resources!

With God… refresh and be refreshed!

Burnout

Have you ever felt burnout? The internet is full of helpful information of what Burnout symptoms might be, for instance:

Physical symptoms: headaches, stomachaches/intestinal issues, fatigue, frequent illness, changes in appetite/sleep.

Emotional symptoms: helplessness, cynicism, sense of failure or self-doubt, decreased satisfaction, feeling detached or alone in the world, loss of motivation.

Behavioural signs: reduced performance in everyday tasks, withdrawal or isolation, procrastination, outbursts, using substances to cope.

According to an American study, 94% of workers have experienced at least one symptom of burnout in the past year.  It’s safe to say that burnout is on the rise.

So what do we do when we start to feel burnout? Let me share a scripture that I have found helpful taken from Isaiah 40:28:

Do you not know?
    Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
    and his understanding no one can fathom.

This scripture tells us that God doesn’t get tired. God has never learned anything new. God has never said, “I didn’t know that,” or “Oh that didn’t occur to me.” God has never felt exhausted, never felt fatigued, and God has never needed a nap.

So what that means is that you and I have permission to be tired. We have permission to be exhausted. We have permission to throw up our hands and say, “I don’t know what to do”.  We have permission to stop and rest.

The problem isn’t that we have felt burnout, the problem is that we may not have known what to do when we felt that way.

Pretending is harmful. Pretending that we are okay and pushing through will only make matters worse.  However, tending is preventing.

This Fall and particularly the past several weeks have been a bit frenetic for me.  It feels as though there has been more of everything.  More meetings, more needs to be met — both personally and in ministry, more hurt and anxiety with the people that I meet. On Friday morning, I woke up tired and anxious… my schedule was light that day and I had a 24 hour window with nothing pressing… so, I decided to run away from home.

I packed a little bag, got in the car and drove to the cottage. Brian was a bit perplexed since I have never (in our 24 years of having a cottage) stayed overnight there by myself.

During my two hour drive up north, I listened to praise music, I cried, I prayed, and then eventually I began to sing along. When I got to the cottage, I lit a fire in the fireplace and literally sat —no phone, no music, no tv, I just sat like a zombie for an hour (maybe more) — and allowed God to refuel me.  I asked God to give me strength, and wisdom. I asked God to calm my anxious heart, and to help me put things in perspective.  I ate well, slept well and in the morning I woke up refreshed. I felt as though God had done a mini miracle in my spirit.

This experience reminded me of the Burning Bush. Do you know that story in the Old Testament?  The bush that was on fire but never consumed. It tells us we can be on fire and won’t burnout if we are not the ones supplying the fuel. The bush wasn’t supplying the fuel, God’s Holy Spirit was! If we let God supply the fuel for our fire, sure we will feel tired/exhausted at times but like the bush, we won’t burn out!!