Recharged?

We can get fatigued - it is natural for the body to run down, the mind following just about as quickly.  What gets us to the point of fatigue may be the day-to-day activities of life, or the totally unexpected event which happens in an instant and demands all of our energies to remedy.  After having undergone knee replacement this past week, I am feeling the fatigue of my body having to adjust to the new device, the influence of pain medications, and the pain associated with swelling from the tremendous manipulation of the knee to accomplish the procedure.  It is a physical fatigue, but it has taken a toll on my mind, as well.  I genuinely get to the point of needing to just "shut down" - a rarity for me as most will tell you! When fatigue gets to us, we all respond a little differently - my usual response is to just move a little slower, take a little longer to process, but not to totally "shut down" and nap.  I have a good friend who enjoys those afternoon naps while we vacation together, or over the weekend when the chores are all caught up.  It is a good thing - because that "down time" actually helps us to recharge for the tasks at hand.  Learning to recharge is important - especially as it applies to our spiritual energies.  No amount of physical or mental recharge will get us quite the same results if we neglect the spiritual recharge in the mix.  We need all three.  In turn, we also get the benefit of the emotional recharge - something thrown in kind of like a bonus from God!

So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith.  (Galations 6:9-10 MSG)

Learning when to step back is an important part of recharging our energies, just as much as it helps us reframe our perception of the circumstances.  We grow weary many times because our perception becomes "tainted" by our mental, physical, or spiritual fatigue.  In turn, all we do takes on an air of being laborious and just not easy.  I cannot promise you all things will come out smelling like roses, or that the journey won't be riddled with a few stones along the way, but when we get this idea of recharge correct, we stand a much better chance of facing our difficult moments in better form and with firmer consistency.

Recharge involves connection - something you will have probably observed to be a continual theme in my writings.  I have a set of rechargeable batteries which power mom's hearing aides.  When they begin to get a little run-down, the signal received is weaker and the clarity by which the signal is received is distorted.  Later in the day, as the batteries begin to lose their charge, the signal weakens, meaning I have to speak louder, clearer, and closer to her in the same room as her.  At the beginning of the day though, the batteries are fully charged and she can make out my voice from a much further distance and with much better clarity.  The difference comes in the level of charge left in the battery.  The way to restore the charge is through connection - placing them in the charging station overnight usually accomplishes this quite well.

Now, take this into our spiritual lives and apply the same truths there.  We all might start with a full charge at the beginning of the journey, but as time goes on, the charge wears down and we begin to hear with less clarity, receiving distorted signals as a result of our lack of charge.  Spiritually, reconnection must be made to that which gives us our "recharge".  In the event you may not know how this occurs, it begins at the feet of Jesus.  We just need to stop long enough to have some "down time" with him.  Just as the hearing aides need to be put into the charger station and have some "down time" by which they will receive their fresh charge, we need to make this connection with Jesus by simply being in a place he can recharge us.

I learned that how well I get those hearing aides anchored into the recharger makes all the difference, though.  If I just haphazardly place them in there, putting the left into the right chamber, etc., I don't get a full charge.  They need to be in the right place, at the right depth, and for the right period of time in order to receive their full charge.  Same thing is true for us - we need to be in the right place (at the feet of Jesus), at the right depth (not just stopping at a simple "hey, how ya doing, Jesus?" kind of moment), and for the right period of time (long enough to connect and get renewed).  Just sayin!

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