I just need a break…

We all came into summer looking for a little relief. School’s out. Beach vacation. Long days and sunlight until 9pm. Life has been very hard since the start of 2020. We’ve all been through a lot. We just needed summer. Well, summer is almost over. How full is your tank? How much capacity do you have? Are you rested and relaxed … or … are you more tired than ever, going to sleep earlier and have less and less capacity?

I just saw a story about how Apple’s employees are banding together to protest calls from the company to return to the office.

Apple spent $5 billion building a truly state-of-the-art campus with exercise rooms, restaurants, playing fields, yoga studios, etc. Literally every luxury an employee could want working for the richest company in human history. Nope. I just want to stay home.

We are shot. Spent. We have no capacity. No attention span. We’ve been through Covid, George Floyd, the contested election, January 6th and now we have the investigation into January 6th. We have soaring inflation. Home prices have started to fall. We might already be in a recession and/or fall further into one. That might mean layoffs, corporate downsizing, a drop in your 401(k), etc.

are you ready for that?

Do you have any gas in the tank to handle what’s next? John Eldredge’s podcast today talked about “I just need a break”. “Just give me a break from the unending pounding I’ve been experiencing. Just back off and give me some time.”

https://wildatheart.org/rhplay/podcast/wild-heart/natural-vs-supernatural-help

Unfortunately, the enemy of your soul will not back off. He and his demons don’t say, “Hey it’s been a little rough on him. Let’s give him six months off.” Quite the contrary. He has no intention of backing off and if anything, will ramp the assault even harder on you while you are down.

so what are you doing … daily … to restore your soul?

The average American spends 5-6 hours a day on non-work related screen time. That’s social media, ESPN app, college football websites, mindless TV watching at night, etc. 5-6 hours a day. What if you just took back 2 of those hours every day? That is 700 hours in a year. That is almost a month’s worth of time. What could you do with those 2 hours a day? How much journaling could you do? How many books of the Bible could you get through – I mean really get through, dig deep in, write summaries of? How many great podcasts from great preachers could you listen to? How much of a small group could you pour yourself into investing in others? How much service work could you do? How many miles could you walk or run or ride a bike? How many sunsets could you watch while you decompress for 30 minutes every single evening? To build resilience, we must be willing to invest in caring for our soul.

“I don’t have the time”

Five very dangerous words to our soul. You soul craves that time you waste staring at your iPhone or watching reruns. Your soul craves a good sunset. It craves a quiet walk on the Pine Mountain trail with your phone in airplane mode. No music. No podcasts. Just the sound of silence and you alone with God. The enemy of your soul will not give you a break. Nope, he’s going to pound away at you until you give up. Beauty and peace and soul care is out there … and you do have the time for it. Go find the beauty.