I’ve been suffering from fatigue. Fatigue, tiredness, exhaustion, lethargy- whatever word you choose to call it. Now, while my mother is frantically looking for her phone to call me, let me pause and clarify. I don’t really mean the physical kind that would warrant a doctor visit, although I have always had a natural affinity to daytime napping. No, there are a lot of different ways we can feel fatigued or tired. There’s that kind you have after a big meal- like on Thanksgiving day around 1:00 p.m. after you’ve had a plate full of starches and the dessert sampler. There’s the kind that you get when the preacher is making his 7th point and the sunlight is beaming through the stained glass window and warming your pew. There’s the tired you feel after a really hard day of work when you fall asleep so fast that you do that weird jerking awake thing. There’s the kind you have after a big event is over- a good one or a bad one- when the surge of adrenaline finally wears off and you just run out of steam. Then, there’s the kind of fatigue you feel after expending mental and emotional energy continually for an extended time and I think that’s where my tiredness is rooted. 

Let’s face it, y’all- we’ve all had a few rough years. I know we’ve talked about this before, but it bears repeating. We had an election year in 2019 and you know about the constant divisive noise that brought. Everyone was firmly planted on their sides and we were all completely spent by the year’s end. Just coming out of that, 2020 brought Covid and we fought over how that should be handled and divided ourselves into teams based on the health choices we made. For two years, we heard about very little that wasn’t related to the virus and what we should be doing about it. We found ourselves with little patience or empathy for those whose Covid fear level was different from our own. More fearful and they were overreacting, brainwashed sheep. Less fearful- they were ignorant with no care for their fellow man. And all along, through the election, Covid, and mounting social issues, new lines were being drawn around what we could say and what we couldn’t. Sometimes, undeniable truths were labeled as misinformation. There were new rules to follow if you wanted to enjoy the privileges of social media. Questioning or stating facts regarding some issues became grounds for being cancelled. Disagreeing somehow became equivalent to hating. Crime and violence skyrocketed and our moral fiber seemed to disintegrate. Now, the world has recently fallen further into chaos. And those are just a few of the excruciating mental exercises we endured together as a country. That doesn’t even include the personal experiences that we encountered in our individual lives during the same time all of that was happening. It seems like there’s been, at least, a decade’s worth of happenings in three years’ time. 

I’ve noticed a shift in us since the onset of all of that- especially in my age group and younger. I’ve noticed a shift in myself. I can’t quite define it, but I’ve seen changes and they weren’t all for the good. For the last little while, I’ve let myself slide in some ways. I won’t be specific, because I’m not sure I can really put my finger on it. I just know that there are little things that I once did that I’m not really doing right now. There are places in my life where I’ve allowed myself to take a break. There are things that I have reordered on my priority list and others that have kind of fallen off completely. There have been times I’ve been more content to observe than to be in the game. Some of the shifts may have been good, but some were not. I’ve just felt mentally numb from this seemingly infinite period of crises and debates and division and moral decline that we’ve all been witnessing for the last few years. Unless you were living in a cave, there was nowhere to go to escape it or tune it out and, eventually, those things catch up with us. 

Not only has there been the mental fatigue, but I think the pandemic gave us all a valid excuse to take it easy for a while. We were home more than usual with so many of our normal activities cancelled. In a way, I think the unusual time of rest was kind of a welcomed thing as we were in the midst of living faster and more frantically than any other generation before us when we were suddenly forced to slam on the brakes. Maybe we kind of liked the way that gentler pace felt. Covid became a legitimate reason to coast along and we had more time at our disposal to do with as we pleased. It was something we hadn’t had in a really long time. We had almost two years for new habits to form and for others to break and they did. Some were good. Some were not. 

It’s the Easter season now- the time we, Christians, celebrate the resurrection and new life. The spring weather is here in the South and nature is coming alive again. The brown, crunchy grass is green and growing again. The bare trees have new leaves budding on their branches. The azaleas are blooming in pink and white. The birds are singing in the day and the frogs in the night. Something about the awakening of new life in nature has inspired a sort of an awakening in me. I’d tried a reset at the turn of the new year, but it never really got off the ground. But, I’ve rested long enough and taken my leave in some places, but I’m not content to stay there. Jesus modeled physical and spiritual rest for us and, if He needed it, how much more do we? But, it’s a place for us to visit momentarily- not to reside in permanently. 

We’ve got to know when it’s time to get back out there. To throw off our complacency and come off the bench. Maybe it’s getting back to church in person. Back to the gym. Back to a ministry. Back to visiting. Back to a mission field. Back to a Bible study group. Back to friends. Back to a social life. Back to volunteering. Back to mentoring. Whatever it is for you. It’s time for my generation and younger to step up and do our part. It’s been a rough time for all of us, but we have work to do. If the world has ever needed Christians to get up and get busy, it’s now. And if Christians have ever needed the support of other Christians, it’s now. When we need it, we should rest, but not retire. I’m sure there’s something all of us could be doing that we’re not and if there’s somewhere we haven’t fully re-engaged, maybe it’s time. 

Have a happy day, friends! 

JONI