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Oh happy day, it is good to be back with y’all!
I know I only missed 1 week of posting, but it has been a horrendous week. I got suddenly sick. I mean, no prior symptoms, nothing at all, and in about 30 – 60 minute span of time, I went from feeling ok, to bleh, to full on fever, aches, get me to bed so I can sleep this off sick.
I have to say, I haven’t been so sick with a high fever in a long, long time. It was the strangest thing too, completely normal one minute, completely not the next.
If you will recall, my last two blog posts have been about not hitting the wall, taking care of yourself, and learning how to not running on empty If you missed them, you can find them here:
I felt like I had been doing a great job of utilizing A.P.E. = Ask – Prioritize – Evaluate when assessing my weekly calendar and responsibilities. I had lightened my load, set new priorities, and adjusted goals to a slower pace, and was moving forward. Then, I found myself not able to do anything but sleep. Finally when the fever broke, I was still not able to do anything other than just rest. Forced, recovery rest is so not fun. It is, in fact boring, yet necessary!
As I continued to recover, I felt like I had waited the appropriate amount of time to rejoin the land of the living and pick up my regular activities, however, my body felt differently. No, I didn’t have a relapse, but getting back to the normal routine of things will take a little longer than I expected.
Yet, it has been in this recovery time that I have been learning even more lessons. Some lessons I am still processing, but there is at least one I am ready to share, it is: take time and rest. This may seem silly, but rest is hard for me. This is not the first time I have mentioned resting is hard for me, but I realized, it is necessary in order to bring quality to the things I do. I realized if I will clear my calendar for friends in need or people in the hospital, I should probably clear my calendar for myself too.
As I was recovering in bed, not really able to do much besides sleep and eat, I was feeling incredibly bad about having to cancel 3 meetings I was responsible for and letting those involved down. They of course were all fine and wanted me well, I however was beating myself up. I had to come to terms that sometimes even ministry needs to wait so the minister can care for themselves.
How did I come to terms with that thought? The Lord ministered to me in my time of sickness and encouraged me that it was important to care for myself. He reminded me that even Jesus took time to recharge, rest, and renew.
Tweet ThisIf it was good enough for Jesus, well then, it should be good enough for me too! Right?
Jesus whispered to my heart, that there will always be opportunities for ministry and people to minister too, and if I want to participate I must be rested, healed, and as whole as possible. In my book, Milk, Eggs, Prophecy: A Healthy New Take on the Radically Ordinary Nature of Prophecy
Jesus’ whole purpose for being here on earth was to save us and to show us that we too could live life and do the things He did. Jesus is a Rock Star! He had it all and He did it all, and He showed us how we could too. Jesus modeled rest, taking time to recharge and to fill up. There are several passages of Scripture that take about the times when Jesus withdrew (Matthew 14:22-23; Luke 6:12-13; Mark 6:30-32)
As I have been taking it slower in my recovery, Matthew 14:22-23 is the one that keeps coming to mind.
Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, (Matthew 14:22-23)
These verses in Matthew follow the feeding of the 5,000, and I am sure after a day of teaching and ministry that Jesus and the disciples were tired, maybe even exhausted. Jesus sent the disciples away to rest and regroup, while He dismissed the crowds and He went away by himself to do the same.
Again, if it’s good enough for Jesus it should be good enough for us. Don’t you think?
Before I go, I need to give a shout to my baby girl who isn’t much of a baby anymore. Today, March 18th she turns 21!!!
Happy Birthday Brandi! I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always, as long as I’m living, my baby you’ll be.
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Debbie: Hope you are feeling much better. My “theme” for 2016 is actually #ChooseRest, so your word here were like a big AMEN to all that God has been speaking to my heart. Hugs (and happy birthday to your swee girl!)
Lyli – #ChooseRest is a great theme! I am so glad my words spoke to you today, and thank you, my daughter had a fabulous birthday yesterday.
Letting go and resting has been a very humbling experience for me. Recovery from my last surgery has been the hardest one yet. I have had to rely on the Lord, my family and friends to do everything for me. After 5 weeks I was finally released to drive again. Woohoo, I was a free women. Hopped in my van and after 20 minutes of carpooling the kids, I was wiped out. ? baby steps is still progress.
Jenni – you are so right – baby steps is still forward progress, even when it doesn’t feel like it sometimes. I am so glad you are on the mend and recovering and getting stronger each day… and woo hoo for driving again!
Debbie,
I had that happen last January. I was totally out of commission for 3 weeks and then slowly got back into the game. But as I rested I knew God was preparing me for the next step.
Blessings,
Janis
Janis – I like that as you rested you knew God was preparing you for the next thing. God is so good, that He doesn’t waste anything we go through, but is always preparing us for more. Thank you for visiting today.
I’m back – found you on the My New Wednesday habit. I still really like this post. It is so real.
Blessings,
Janis
Welcome back Janis! and thanks again – blessings to you as well my friend.
Glad you are feeling better, and I’m sorry you were sick. Taking care of ourselves is so important. It’s something I continually have to work at. (That doesn’t even make sense. Work at taking care of myself??) Anyway, it’s too easy to keep on keeping on, when our body needs rest. Thank you for your reminder. Following you at Barbie’s this weekend.
A two week bout with the flu helped me learn this lesson least year. I’m glad you’re feeling better. Thanks for linking up and Happy Monday!
Lisha – thanks for stopping by and I am glad to be feeling better too…. sorry that you had to learn this lesson last year as well as getting sick 🙁 Thanks for hosting such a great Link-Up #GiveMeGrace
I’m sorry you were sick, and so suddenly too. Praying your body has gotten the rest it needs to recover and this week you will feel much more healing! Happy birthday to your daughter; she is beautiful. My baby girl just turned 21 in January. I know everyone says it, but it’s true: It’s so hard to believe how fast time flies.
Oh Lisa, Thank you – I am sorry too – it was so not fun. Also, thank you for the birthday wishes and beautiful compliment for my daughter. Also, Happy late birthday to your baby girl too – it is so very true – time sure does fly, I wish it didn’t but there is no way to stop it. Blessings
It’s so true! Why do we not want to rest? In me, I think it may be a performance driven mentality. If I’m not doing something, I’m not accomplishing anything. But as you mentioned, we need rest. Usually when I don’t take the time to rest, I end up forced to rest. That’s not fun either! Right beside you learning this difficult lesson of resting! Linking up today at Monday Musings.
Alisa – Yes, I do believe you are right about a performance driven mentality. I often feel guilty if I rest and do nothing – I have so much on my plate, that I can always be doing something it seems. Oh, and yes – forced rest is SO NOT FUN either. Blessings to you and thanks for stopping by today.
Debbie, blessed to be your neighbor at Coffee for your Heart today. So glad you are feeling much better. It really is so important for us to take time for ourselves.
Tara, thanks for visiting – so glad we are neighbors. Yes, you are so right, it is very important to take time for ourselves, even when we don’t think we need to. Blessings.
Oh my goodness, so sorry you were so sick! Rest is really hard for me too, but such an important lesson. Thank you for sharing at #FridayFrivolity! 🙂
I am learning that rest is hard for a lot of us… thanks for stopping in again this week. 🙂
Happy birthday to your daughter! Glad to hear you are feeling better. I do that to myself also. I don’t even realize I am getting sick until I am full blown fever and can’t move. I feel like God does allow this to happen so that we can rest because He knows we would just keep on going. Thanks for sharing with #SocialButterflySunday! Hope to see you link up again this week. Happy Easter!
Kelly – thank you so much for the birthday wishes to my daughter -she thanks you as well. I too think God uses times like this to slow me down and make me rest. I pray your Easter was a good one – I took the week off to rest (on my own – without getting sick – lol ) I will be back to link-up not to worry.
I am so sorry that you’ve been sick. It sounds like it came on so crazy fast. I don’t think you had time to worry about anything, and maybe that was the point of all of it. As you said things come on us as a way for us to learn, and maybe God decided you needed to slow down right now. It is really incredible that you could take time away from feeling so ill to see what you could learn. When I got sick and had my stroke 3 years ago I had to lay down also, it came on so suddenly and seven and a half months later I was just climbing out of bed. But since that has happened I have learned so much about empathy, patience, caring for myself and others. Not that I enjoyed it, and I wouldn’t want to do it again, but without it I wouldn’t be able to understand my children and their issues. So I’m thankful in the end, that God granted me the wisdom through my illness to help my children. Sometimes the way we learn the lesson isn’t pleasant. But the important thing is that we listened enough to learn. I hope that you get well soon, and take your newfound knowledge and conquer the mountains that God wants you to conquer.
Oh, thank you so much Nikki – it did come on crazy fast and you are correct, no time to worry about anything at all. Thank you for sharing some of the things you have learned as well, through your journey. I always find you blog inspiring! I am so glad that God gave you wisdom to help your children as well. I am all better and I have learned to care for myself so I don’t hit the wall and can conquer the mountains God places in front of me.
Hope you are feeling better and better. I love how God slows us down to help us grow. I had a similar virus this year. Never have fever and never remember one that high.
Deborah – yes! I am feeling so much better and I am sorry to hear you had a similar virus – it was not very much fun, but I am glad it is behind me now. Blessings and thanks for stopping by 🙂