Good Exhaustion

         

 

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. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. (Isaiah 40: 28-31)

 

“Are—are—are you,” panted Shasta, “are you King Lune of Archenland?” The old man shook his head. “No,” he replied in a quiet voice, “I am the Hermit of the Southern March. ..If you run now, without a moment’s rest, you will still be in time to warn King Lune.”

 

Shasta’s heart fainted at these words for he felt he had no strength left. And he writhed inside at what seemed the cruelty and unfairness of the demand. He had not yet learned that if you do one good deed your reward usually is to be set to do another and harder and better one. But all he said out loud was: “Where is the King?” (from The Horse and his Boy, the Chronicles of Narnia, C. S. Lewis)

 

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It’s been unusually windy this month, and the trees in the forest behind our home look tired. The few remaining leaves have been blown off, weak limbs have cracked and fallen, and the trees are swaying back and forth as if to say, “enough already! Let us rest.”

 

That’s good exhaustion. They get to sleep for the winter after a strong season of growth.

 

The vibe I pick up on campus tends to assume that exhaustion is a bad thing. The reality is this: if we get tired while we are loving God and neighbour and seeking first the kingdom, that is good exhaustion. That is part of the rhythm of creation itself: hard work following by a much-needed time of rest and replenishment.

 

The question is not, “who can I tell how horribly exhausted I am?” Instead, the question is, “what do I hear after I offer my exhaustion to God?”

 

And His reply may include any of the following counter-questions:

 

 Will you take time to refresh your hope in me, so that I can renew your strength?

 

Have you discerned the causes of your exhaustion and allowed me to refine them, so that you can offer me “good” exhaustion and not foolish, “striving after wind” exhaustion? (Today’s Journaling way of prayer may help you carry out such discernment.)

 

Can you hear me calling you with the reward of “another and harder and better good deed” to be carried out before it’s time for that well-needed winter (Christmas) rest?

 

Those are the types of questions that lead us to become more rooted in the tree of life.