Rust Out or Burn Out

Mark Driscoll at the Mars Hill tells his story of exhaustion from overextending himself. His post reminded me of a conversation at work. A coworker was telling me of a couple that sailed their boat up to coast of Canada and back. Three months after their return the wife found out she had pancreatic cancer. She told her husband that she was really glad they had retired and spent their time sailing together. I can take the story one of two ways. The first is noble, she was glad to spend her last days with her husband. I think that is a sweet thought. The second is that we need to get as much pleasure our of life as possible. This one just sits counter to what I believe. At the end of my life I will not measure it by the amount of pleasure I have had but if I have suffered for the right things and have I served God and the people in my life. We don't just go around once in life, what we do matters for eternity, not in terms of salvation but in terms of glorifying God. There are several things that we meet in this life that are eternal; the Word of God, people and virtue. I want to invest my life in all three.

I pray that Mark gets back on his feet soon and then spends a little more time resting then too.

"Of Brokenness and Buddies

I write this blog while flying somewhere over the United States late on a Thursday night heading home from a conference in the great nation of Texas. I have blogged very little thus far in 2007 as I have been playing hurt in terms of my health. I have been pushing it for ten years since Mars Hill Church opened up, and the end of last year was a particularly rough patch. I was looking forward to a few weeks off after Christmas to catch up on sleep. Sadly, what happened is that I would be very tired and go to bed at a decent hour only to wake up a few hours later, unable to return to sleep. I was not stressed out or thinking, but it seemed something was physically wrong. Even sleeping pills were of little to no help and by the end of the holidays I was exhausted, having slept an average of perhaps three hours a night. A naturopath said I had overextended myself and worn out my adrenal glands (which regulate my sympathetic nervous system). The result of basically a decade of perpetual stress and a final taxing season was that I was exhausted all day—I literally had blurred vision and would fall asleep quickly only to wake up a few hours later, unable to sleep again. So, I have been conserving energy for my family and church, but some Sundays are brutal. I find myself nodding off on the side of the stage before one of the four services I preach live." Continue reading Of Brokenness and Buddies on Mark Driscoll's site.