Do you ever feel weary?
Like the weight of the world is on your shoulders and you can't seem to lift it off?
Do you ever feel tears threatening to pour out in response to your weariness?
Is it hard to take a deep breathe because your heart is so weary?
Yea, me too. I've been there many times. It's never fun...
At times, I totally get why I am feeling weary. I'm overloaded and need to rest. A friend has hurt my feelings. I'm feeling plain u-g-l-y. I don't feel like I'm accomplishing what God has called me to accomplish. People just don't get my heart.
All of these things, plus more, can cause my heart to feel weary.
There are times when I feel weary and I have no idea why. I just do. I search and search my heart and head and for the life of me cannot figure out the source. Am I the only one? Please shake your head and agree that this is you sometimes too. I'm not the only one, right?!?
The other day I was in a weary but no idea why phase. For the life of me I could not identify the cause. This led me to more weariness... I began to ponder this thing that was bringing me down. The more I thought about it, the more I was perplexed.
Then it hit me like a ton of bricks to a soft forehead. My focus had been on so many things that morning. All of the things were worthy and needed attention. However, I had failed to include God in my doings. As I was accomplishing, I was thinking of me and my to do list. My heart was inward rather than outward. Here's what I mean...
*As I cleaned up the kitchen, my heart was already focused on my next task rather than the joy of having a kitchen to clean.
*As I wrote out my grocery list, I noticed the time and kicked myself at how late it was. I should have acknowledged the time, sped my writing up, but kept my joy.
*While I was at the store, I ran into a wonderful woman I know who has a beautiful heart for God. She and I always have the most heartfelt conversations. She's someone who I dearly wished lived next door to me so we could talk more often. As I was talking with her, I was a bit (ok, a lot) stressed about time. Instead of focusing on her and being so thankful that God allowed me to talk with her, I was focused on the time. It's not like I had a plane to catch or kids to grab from school. I just wanted my schedule to remain in tact.
My weariness was a result of me focus rather than God focus. The world wasn't going to blow up because my schedule was a bit off. I was too focused on what I wanted rather than what God was giving me. He was surrounded me with goodness and instead of basking in it, I was already moving on to the next moment.
As I thought about this, I wondered how often is our weariness associated with inward thinking. Regardless of what causes the weariness, do we remain in it due to our focus??
God understands weariness. He gave us the emotion for goodness sakes. He's not looking on us and shaking His head with disgust. As a matter of fact, He's patting His shoulder and calling us to lay our weary heads on it. He will give us rest, we just have to be willing to curl up next to Him and allow Him to rub our backs until all is well again.
Matthew 11:28
Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Go to Him, sweet one, and get your gift of rest.
xoxo
