I was trying to recall when I started to get the tired sensation. As a kid I can never remember feeling tired... quite the opposite in fact. I could play football all day and still want to play out all evening too.
It was great hearing James Durrant in his preach last week speak about the difference between being a student and then working in the city. How he wished he had appreciated how much free time he had as a student compared to now.
We can look at the life stages we have already been through and with a knowing smile say 'wait until you know what I know!' Does a student know what tiredness really is until they've had a year of working a full time job? Does a newly married couple appreciate how quiet life is pre-kids?
The pressures of life whatever stage you are at can feel busy and make you feel tired. Each stage of life brings new challenges that takes time to adapt to. Sometimes people ask Lucy and I how we cope with 4 kids... I'm not sure sometimes; my hair is certainly a little thinner and greyer than before we had kids. The reality is though that they don't all come at once and we've had a time to adapt to life with each one.
Our friends Justin and Lou & Eoin and Anita have both had twins this year- if anyone I know is allowed to be tired then its these guys. I'm so impressed with they way they have reshaped family life to make way for not just one new addition but two.
I once heard a Church leader called Steve Tibbert talk helpfully about 'finishing lines'. He encourages us to put finishing lines into our day, week, month and year. I've always found this helpful, particuarly in a busy season. This week I have two finishing lines... Friday at about 7pm when I arrive back home and unwind with the kids and Lucy (although Lucy is trying to get me to Ikea with her!) and also Sunday at about 10pm after a leaders meeting on Sunday night. I also have a finishing line of 1pm on the 19th December when I officially start some annual leave in the run up to Christmas. Its great knowing these points are in my diary... they act as a tiny reward for the hard work that will take place in the run up to them.
One of the most encouraging scriptures has to be from Isaiah 40 "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."
So the answer to tiredness? Red Bull? Caffeine? or the everlasting God who refreshes, renews, strengthens, energises us when we put our hope in Him!
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