Being Exhausted

I’ve recently come to the following revelation: No matter what I do, how I eat, or what routine I try, I will end up exhausted. It’s the nature of labor, and I’m one of the workers. It's exhausting. But there’s a difference between being exhausted and defeated or being exhausted and victorious.

Is the work that we are putting our hands to the right work? The “right work” being the work that we are specifically made to be doing at a particular time in a particular space. Are the people we are sharing in the labor with the right people? The “right people” being the people who are also made for the work, need to bear witness to it, are learning from it, or are there to be thorn in the side (there will likely be one).

I contend that if the answer to these questions is yes, then the exhaustion will not feel debilitating. We will find moments, if not whole chunks, of rest. We will have the necessary strength to continue the work, and all the necessary provision. And yes, we will be exhausted. But that’s part of the point.

We’ll never know what we are capable of doing if we never give everything we have.