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The leader who is running on empty has just enough energy to sustain himself for the next step; the emotional reserves are thin. He must know how to keep his stride and not deplete his resources. To do so once is a lesson hard-learned. To repeat it again is just plain dumb.
When the clock runs out, then I say,“Come back tomorrow, and I’ll have more.”
I don’t have to tie myself to an imaginary, unrelenting cycle to produce more, make more, or try to outdo last week’s numbers. I have just so much time in the day, and I want to do what I can with all my heart involved. When the clock runs out, then I say, “Come back tomorrow, and I’ll have more.”
So I had to establish some guardrails and make some restrictions in my life. The only one who can do that in your life is you!
I had to invest my bursts of energy more intentionally, and in doing so, I would be able to extend my ministry shelf life.
The passing of time will make us old, but it won’t guarantee that we will become fruitful.
How and where I invest my energy may be the most important decision I will make on any given day.
I will give the first and best part of my day to sitting at His feet.
If you do not steward your energy, a few years and fifteen pounds later you will realize that you borrowed all the available pockets of energy you had and invested them in your job, career, or ministry.
Steward your energy well, and in seasons of dismay, you will still have enough of a reservoir to lead.
When the pain is sufficient, and hopefully the time is not too late, you will need to borrow all you can from your ministry in order to make up for the famine in your relationship with God, your family, and your health. If you don’t, you may face a breakdown, an affair, or a divorce.
We are never more vulnerable to depression from burnout than when we are totally fatigued and overtired.
The clock is my dictator, I shall not rest. It makes me lie down only when exhausted. It leads me into deep depression, it hounds my soul. It leads me in circles of frenzy for activities’ sake. Even though I run frantically from task to task, I will never get it all done, for my “ideal” is with me. Deadlines and my need for approval, they drive me. They demand performance from me, beyond the limits of my schedule. They anoint my head with migraines, my in-basket overflows. Surely fatigue and time pressure shall follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the bonds of frustration
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One of the greatest lessons I’m learning (and yes, I am still learning it) is that rest is not sin. Taking a break doesn’t mean you’re lazy or that you’re not as valuable. Catching your breath now and then doesn’t mean you’re not carrying your load, or that you are somehow less than committed to your church, your company, or your calling.
Schedule rests in before your calendar fills up. Rest is not an afterthought; it has to be a primary responsibility. It brings a rhythm back to life and a cadence that makes life sustainable.
God gives us rest, but sometimes we can’t seem to accept such an extravagant gift. We somehow imagine that the world won’t be able to go on without our involvement. There’s too much to do. Yet God says: “You shall do no work at all. . . . It is to be a sabbath of complete rest to you, and you shall humble your souls” (Leviticus 23:31–32). “Humble your souls”?
When we rest at predesignated intervals, we are reminding ourselves that ultimately God controls the outcomes, not me or all of my wonderful efforts.
It’s good for us to wean ourselves off the need to be needed.
“The mark of a successful man is one that has spent an entire day on the bank of a river without feeling guilty about it.” AUTHOR UNKNOWN
When we rest, God continues His work.
Lead out of rest and allow your soul to catch up to you.
In other words, God started each day in the evening, not the morning. Your day does not begin when you get up. It starts when you go to sleep. Rest begins your new day, not coffee.
One such study showed that exercise— three sessions of aerobic activity each week—worked about as well as medication when it came to reducing the symptoms of depression.
The results were published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine in 2000. A 2005 study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine showed that moderate aerobic workouts, done three to five times weekly, cut mild to moderate depression symptoms nearly in half.
Research has shown that physical exercise is one of the best tension relievers.
improving your diet and eating habits can help as part of an overall treatment for depression.
Solomon wrote, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life” (Proverbs 4:23).
When there is something out of place at the headwaters, everything else is affected.
My goal is not to study the Bible for an hour each morning. Rather, it is to let the Bible study me!
“Whatever the struggle, continue the climb. It may be only one step to the summit.” DIANE WESTLAKE
Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”
If you miss building that home base, you will have nowhere to go when your ministry days are over.
Restore the preeminence of the family early on. Too many have sacrificed marital harmony and family on the altar of success. It’s not worth it.
Others may fight for pieces of my time and energy, but no one will fight for my family.
His greatest contribution would be leading others to their greatest potential rather than accomplishing more personally.
I have chosen to spend time with my family. I travel to Oregon and spend time with my children and their children. It’s a biblical mandate.
There will always be those who will try to make your decisions for you and judge your lifestyle as less than righteous. I will absorb all such criticism, and so must you. Fight for your family. If you don’t, no one else will.
Psalm 41:3: “The Lord will sustain him upon his sickbed; in his illness, You restore him to health.”
I can’t do any more than I can do, and if people don’t like it that’s no fault of mine.
Check out this quote.
“Thus says the Lord: ‘Stand in the ways and see, And ask for the old paths, where the good way is, And walk in it; Then you will find rest for your souls.’” JEREMIAH 6:16 NKJV
get to the resolution side of the equation as quickly as possible—without
Living in a de-motivated state is something that must be faced . . . and conquered. Waiting for depression to end before you begin to live will only compound the problem—and drain the batteries of your soul.
Commitments to a preferred future do not come randomly. They are intentionally established at times when you are thinking clearly and are close to God.
In the clearest of times, when you are near to Christ and thinking with insight rather than with ambiguity, imagine your ideal future. Write down that picture and how it can best be attained.
Write down what your priority relationships will be that must remain healthy regardless of how you feel or what happens: your relationship with Christ and your relationship with your spouse and family.
How do you want to be seen in ten years? • What do you want to be good at or known for? • What kind of personality do you want to have? • What do you want your family to look like? The more clearly you identify your target, the more apt you will be to hit it!
What is not written down will become diluted into good intentions—shallow and replaceable by changing moods and impetuous moments.
During my time of solitude, I asked God to silence every voice but His own. In those days, I wrote down the best picture I could of my preferred future: with regard to my faith, marriage, family, finances, ministry, physical health, and relationships. I prioritized them, reedited them, prayed over them, and revisited them after a week. (You will find a detailed list in chapter 5 under the subheading “The Most Important Five Percent.”)
Hope is the sustaining energy needed to accomplish the other two: to increase your relationship with Christ and to love those around you.
Without hope, you will know everything there is to know about faith, but your own faith will flag.
