T H E O P H I L U S

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.
²⁹ He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
³⁰ Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
³¹ 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

In my college years I recall the times doing all-night studies for exams and assignments that needed to be done at the end of the year. By the time November or April rolled around, it was the months that most of us students had the least amount of sleep. This may have never changed for most of the students even today, and all can sentiment the feeling of completing those examinations and assignments for the semester. For some, it is a sense of ultimate freedom. For others, it is a time when we go to bed and don’t wake up for the next three entire days. You feel like doing absolutely nothing, neither can your brain handle any stimulus other than dreaming in the comfort of your soft pillow in contrast to the hard flat wooden surface you just spent the last 72 hours on. You wake up, eat, and go back to sleep, then sleep some more. You don’t do anything other than that.

That feeling may have not gone away since our graduation, and in recent days is happening to us due to what we label as “life”. We are burned out, tired, frustrated, depressed, anxious, angry, bitter, and most of all – feeling empty. We’ve burned everything out of our furnace. There is nothing to fuel the steam train, and feel like the track up ahead is way too far to get to the end of the journey. According to the Public Institute of the Public Service of Canada, over 40% of work-related problems are due to burnout or work-related stress⁽¹⁾. We’ve either been overloaded with work, feel like our work is never satisfying, or we feel like work politics is overbearing and discouraging to the point of one’s confidence in performance diminishing. This is not exclusive to Christians either. It also happens in the church amongst pastors and their congregations.

Why is this the case? Today’s society is highly based on performance and product. Even Churches base themselves inadvertently on such values. But this is not a criticism piece today. It is something we have to think and reflect on. Where do we as people of God, hold our value in life? Is it on the work we do and the amount of performance we feel we’ve accomplished? As Christians we can begin to fix our eyes on not how valuable my performance is, but rather on what Christ has already done for us. That his Grace be sufficient for us. This is not to say we do not do our best in our work or studies, but if it does not work out the way we desire it to be, that our eternity ought not to hang upon them.

God doesn’t get tired. When we are tired, on the verge of burnout, and weary – there is one thing that we ought to remember. “He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.” The Lord’s strength for us is never conditional, and never limited, especially when it is done as heartfelt worship to God. That worship, whether through our work, or our serving the Lord at church, ought not to be done for the sake of self-performance, nor simply just for the sake of filling our own refrigerators with food, but rather in faith that God will make more of what is unseen for the sake of Him.

It begins with admitting. God begins to work in those that admit we cannot do it on our own strength. He begins to answer our prayers when we submit, and understand his power is greater than ours. When we begin to allow God to have His way and not our own.

God does not look down on us for our weakness. The lie is that God looks down on us when we mess up. That he looks at us with shame when we are not strong and admit our shortcomings. But rather, that is when God is most pleased and willing to do what he does best – be who he is! The all powerful, all knowing, all present, and unconditionally gracious God. Isaiah 40:31 says “but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.” God is most honored and pleased when we trust him enough to lean on him.

Today, may you find rest, and restoration in the Lord as you lean on Him. If you are burnt out, may he rejuvenate you and heal you with his hope, truth, and love deep within your heart, and may you also be physically revived for His glory.