Be Healed

Today was not a productive day. I did the laundry (because I wanted to have clean underwear for tomorrow) but that was as far as I got. I did not have the oomph to do one other productive thing.

Now, you may suggest that I should have forced myself to do it anyway. Maybe you’d be right, but positively you’d be missing the point. The point is that I haven’t felt so completely unmotivated in a good long while, and I’ve gotten accustomed to having plenty of energy. That means I was a little more critical when I looked at my day.

There had been no emotional upheaval, and I wasn’t in tears and I wasn’t angry and I wasn’t depressed. I wasn’t much of anything, in fact. And when I looked at yesterday (because how we feel today is most often a result of what happened yesterday) I found only one major difference between yesterday and other days.

Last evening I jumped on my mini­tramp for twenty­five minutes, with a little "break" in there for jumping rope. (Have you done that since you were a kid? You may be surprised at what a good work-out it is!) I could tell at the time it was a good aerobic workout, but what I didn’t realize until this afternoon was that it was too much of a good aerobic workout.

Once again, I had overdone it.

In light of that, I can tell you that forcing myself to get stuff done anyway would have been like telling a person who is in debt that they should just spend more money . or a person who is grossly overweight that they should just eat more. If you got yourself into your mess by overdoing one thing, you’ll only fix it by going in the opposite direction.

The only cure for the physical side effects of overwork is rest.

Fortunately, I have the opportunity to actually notice these things in my life. I have the opportunity to think, because I’m not too busy. And because I do have that opportunity, I would like to make you aware of what you may be doing to yourself.

If you’re cranky, don’t just try to squelch the crankiness and paste a smile on your face. Maybe you’re cranky because you haven’t forgiven that person who wronged you. Maybe you can’t forgive them because you’re scared to death to confront them about what they’ve done. Maybe you’re cranky because you are physically and emotionally exhausted. Maybe it’s because you’re worried about something, and you’ve not taken the time to realize it and consciously put it in God’s hands. Sometimes I get cranky because things aren’t going the way I want them to go, and I just need to sit down and get an attitude adjustment. But whatever the cause of your crankiness, pasting a smile on your face and squelching your feelings is NOT a cure.

Stop.

Let the Lord show you your problem.

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