Thursday Thoughts - Depleted

A note, this was the devotional I shared with Church Council last night, so it is worded as such.  However, it is also something worth posting for others to see as a Thursday Thought.  Because I think it is still on my mind.

Sunset 2/27/2021 - Something that also replenishes me

“Do you not know?  Have you not heard?  The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.  He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.  He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.  Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.  They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”  - Isaiah 40:28-31 (NRSV)

I’m going to admit something to all of you, and I hope you don’t mind.  The past two months I have written the brief devotionals that I started the meeting with.  Not for any other reason than I felt like whatever I was sharing would be more connected with all of you as my church family than something I just pulled from a devotional book or found online that I thought was nice.  Last night, however, I was driving home after our Small Group Zoom gathering, and started to think to myself, “I haven’t even thought about what to write for tomorrow’s meeting!  I’ll just find something from home.”

And as I thought about what book to look through to find something for today’s meeting, a very exuberant organ version of “Joy to the World” came on my playlist (because I listen to all music in all seasons) and the following word came to my mind:

Depleted.

Joy to the World and Depleted are about as far apart as any two words can be.  But go with me for just a minute.  I am currently on consecutive work day 10 of 12, which may be why I had to email my thoughts on this before I lost them and could write them this morning.  Some of those days have been just regular days.  Others have been quite painful based on the work I did.  Some have been dehydrating because talking loudly in a space with the worst acoustics ever behind a plastic protective barrier while wearing a mask for 4 hours straight does that to you.  And those days left me depleted.

Not tired.  Not exhausted.  But depleted.  Lacking energy and inspiration to go on.  Why?  It could be because I was so busy.  Or because I was stressed.  Or because I keep having memories crop up of a year ago today (and yesterday, and 3 days ago and tomorrow and next week).

When you are depleted of something, you need replenishment.  If you are hungry, you need food.  If you are thirsty, you need something to drink.  When I am dehydrated, I drink things with electrolytes because I know my body needs those things.  My headaches caused by dehydration always go away when I drink coconut water.  We replenish our bodies of things they need.

But how do you replenish yourself when it is depleted from everything else going on around you?  For many of us it would likely include prayer and reading the Bible.  For me, I started to feel replenished when “Joy to the World” came on my playlist.  And, I am happy to say, gathering with any group of church people, is also the replenishment I need.  Even if it is a meeting – it replenishes my soul.

Our days may be long and times may be stressful and we may be tired, stressed, exhausted, and depleted.  But sometimes being together in some way, whether in person or via Zoom is the replenishment we need.