02202022_LbT_Tiredness

The podcast episode discusses the cycle of tiredness and feeling drained in life. It explores the physical, mental, and spiritual factors that contribute to this tiredness. Lack of proper sleep schedules, diet, and physical health can all contribute to physical tiredness. Mental tiredness can be caused by the pressures and expectations of work or school. Spiritual tiredness can stem from feeling burned out by repetitive spiritual activities or struggling to reconcile personal moral codes with Christian beliefs. The episode encourages finding purpose and understanding one's calling from God to break free from the cycle of tiredness. It also warns against the negative effects of comparing oneself to others and highlights the importance of understanding the struggles and sacrifices behind others' apparent successes. I'm tired is a phrase that is commonly uttered among many of us for the majority of circumstances in our lives. It can range from the mundane to the serious, and it can almost become second hand. But is this really how we should be living? Just being tired in every single week, struggling to make it through the work day or through classes, or through whatever assignments you have to complete and then being refreshed somewhat over the weekend just to start Monday tired all over again? Shouldn't there be something more to life than just going through a cycle of tiredness and being awake? Well, I decided to record this podcast episode on living by thriving today because I am feeling tired. No cliche. It has been an interesting couple of weeks. On February 20th, 2022, today is a Sunday evening and I'm not going to lie, sometimes it's not easy going through these things when work is busy and the work day flies by. You think flying by is a good thing, but that's actually not the case. When work flies by, that means you had a busy day and you had projects, you had assignments, you had meetings, all sorts of that type of stuff and it can feel draining. It can feel draining and it can make you feel weary. And we want to find rest, but we also want to be productive and we go back and forth to and fro in how to handle this and so the cycle continues. So how can we break free from the cycle of tiredness and being awake? I mean, there's several solutions people tell you to do and some may say it's more personalized than others, but I believe it's a mixture of both objective things that you can do and personal things that everyone may be different in and so that's what we're going to be talking about today. So, tiredness. We want to be awake. We want to be alert. We don't want to miss out on the things in life. So, well, let's go through some of the more obvious causes. Tiredness can be caused by a lack of sleep or, more precisely, a lack of proper sleep schedules for the individual. For example, if I go to bed at midnight or 2 a.m. or 1 a.m. and it fluctuates every single day so it's always different and I wake up at maybe 8 a.m., 8.30 a.m., 7.30 a.m., 9.30 a.m. on different days, then my body is not used to that type of schedule. It's different every single day and so without that consistency, you can feel more tired throughout the day. So it takes that little bit of discipline at the beginning of each day and at the end of each day to get up at the same time and to go to sleep at the same time. That can definitely help us feel less physically tired. Another thing we can do is proper diet, proper nutrition, and all the good physical aspects which you can probably hear in different podcasts. But if we just stuck with the physical tiredness that only covers a certain extent of how tired we really are. We're not just tired physically, we're also tired mentally and tired spiritually. Some of us who are listening may be tired mentally because of the pressures, the psychological pressures that come through work or come through the expectations that align with school or align with work. You need to meet a certain standard in order to get promoted or to pass a class or to get that A or the B or the C to get that degree. However you want to get it, you've got to meet an expectation and maybe you are meeting it. Maybe it's not catastrophic for you, but then at the end of the day, you still feel tired. You're not enjoying your experience, you're feeling miserable. That's not how Christians should live, but yet that's an experience that many of us if not all of us go through at some point, if not at many points in our lives. So we have that mental strain. But some people also have a spiritual tiredness. That can vary in between each individual. But spiritual tiredness can come from a variety of factors as well. Perhaps you feel like you have heard the same thing spoken in church almost forever. If you were raised in a Christian household like I am, if you've been going to church almost your entire life like myself, you may have felt you have heard everything. Sure the sermon is different each Sunday, and sure the subject matter may fluctuate a bit, but overall isn't it just all the same thing? Presenting the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ every single Sunday and then you hear your community group or your small group or your discipleship group some day in the week and you just go through that motion of spiritual activity that you feel burned out over it, that it's all monotonous, all the same, and there's nothing you look forward to other than the next meeting because you're not getting real life out of it. You're definitely not thriving and you feel like you're not even living because it's all you've ever been doing. Or perhaps you're not always been in a Christian household. Perhaps you're a new believer or someone who converts to the faith later in their life. But you're also feeling spiritually tired of how you're perceiving Christians and how they live. Maybe people are not abiding by the standards you expected when someone labels themselves as a Christian. Perhaps what you're seeing in Christian opinions does not match what you think is your own moral code, and you have this struggle to reconcile the difference between your moral code and the moral code that is presented by Christianity or so interpreted by some pastor or some leader or some peer that you are with. So in that case you may be spiritually tired as well. You may be tired in thinking that God's not answering your prayers or He's saying no to what you're asking even though you feel like you're obeying and you feel like the time is now. And even though you understand intellectually that the eternal perspective is over your temporary perspective, maybe it's hard to believe it. But in any of these cases, you're feeling tired. And as we loop back to the beginning, physically, spiritually, mentally, you just don't feel truly alive. You're making it through. You're surviving. But that's about it. And so I wanted to address today just some of my life experiences as well as just some thoughts I have on the spot whenever they come up. So in the sense of tiredness, why do we do what we do in the first place? Think about it. Don't just come up with the answer, oh, I need to make money or I need to get through school. Sure, but why? You want success, right? You have societal expectations, right? You want to accomplish your goal or your dream or your calling or your passion, right? Or do you not really know why you're doing what you're really doing? Well, you know, through years you've been going through some sort of cycle, a vicious cycle called the motions. The motions is a concept where you are alive, but you are not living. In other words, you're going through the motions. You're going through the routine and the habit. And I may or may not have touched upon this subject in another episode, but repetition is not a mistake of remembrance. Because if you hear something one time, maybe you forget about it. But if you hear something ten times, no matter how annoying it is, you tend to remember. So I will say it again if I haven't already. Going through the motions will make you tired because there is no end goal or end purpose to do what you are currently doing. What is your purpose? Not just doing things, but what is your purpose? Is the purpose to make money? Is the purpose to succeed? Is the purpose to, quote, glorify God, but you don't really know what that means? Or do you understand your calling from God? That He has placed you into this position in your life, into this time period in world history, into the country you are in, into the territory or state that you are in, into the city and or region that you are in, all intentionally and all by His sovereign plan. No accidents were made for where you are at today. No accidents at all. And you have a calling to glorify God in your circumstances. Not someone else's. Because we play the comparison game and comparisons also make us feel fatigued and tired. But through your own gifts and talents that you've been blessed with by God. And as I just alluded to earlier, the comparison game, that's another way that's going to make you feel tired mentally and even spiritually. Why is so and so being blessed by God more than me? I'm obeying God more, you may say. Or I'm happy for them, but when is it going to be my turn? When am I going to get something more? Or I already got a blessing, but I want more of it. Or why doesn't God send justice upon evildoers? What is He waiting for? That can also make us feel tired and weary and just anxious about things. And I already addressed in another episode that fear isn't always a liar, but in the cases where it is, when it comes from the devil and not from God, when it holds you back from fulfilling God's purpose for your life, then definitely gives you fatigue. And so, when we compare with others, we are looking at other people's perspectives and we're seeing that as how it should be for us. And we are mixing up our timeline with theirs. And we are conflating their blessings and their struggles with ours, but we tend to ignore their struggles and their pain because that is just how comparisons work. It's idealistic, focusing on what the best is for others and wanting that for ourselves without realizing the lows and the ebbs and flows they went through. Because life isn't just a social media parade where you see it on Instagram or you see it on whatever social media you follow. The highlight reel of their life, or Twitter, which is just complaints, but that's just a side story. But for whatever social media people use to show off their strength, they will hide the weaknesses unless you are their friend. Because if you are their true friend then you understand the struggles and the sacrifices they went through. When you play the comparison game, you don't think about that. You don't realize what others went through to get to the point they are at now. And even if they didn't go through much, you are taking their blessings that God has given them and being jealous and envious, which is something God has expressly commanded for us as believers not to do. Because that robs us of joy, even though it's convenient and easy to do. See, to truly live and thrive, we can't just stick to societal norms and we can't use the excuse that everyone does it or most people do it. Because what most people do is average. And what most people do does not equate to the right thing or the correct thing or the best thing. So let's stop trying to be like most people or most Christians. We are only called to be who we are in God's sight and to fulfill God's calling for our lives by utilizing the talents and gifts He has blessed us with and turning that to bless others with those gifts. And so glorify God, loving Him first and foremost because that's our primary motivation, then loving our neighbor as ourselves. See, when we look at life that way, it makes us feel a little bit less tired, doesn't it? The perspective that you have dictates how your life goes. Because if your perspective is of the earth and what most people look at, then it is naturally self-centered. Because if we want to succeed in our life and yet all we do in our lives are just doing things that benefit ourselves, we're going to eventually burn out. Because there is no clear calling, there is no clear purpose. We're almost like mindless zombies going from one week to the next, waiting for that paycheck or that report card to come in. We're not realizing the opportunity and the gift of life that God has given to us. Because we assume when we go through the motions of life and we go through the routines and habits and get fatigued, we assume that tomorrow is guaranteed even if we don't admit it and even if we don't realize it. If your perspective is that each day is a gift from God and that our days are numbered and that our life is like a vapor in the wind compared to the vast expanse of eternity, if we realize how precious our time is, it not only motivates us, it makes us feel more awake. Sure, we feel these burdens, but they don't last forever. But the burdens we have now, some of them may be self-inflicted, some of them may be from the devil, some of it may be just because we're stretching ourselves too thinly, but the burdens we have now we can cast on Christ so that we can continue to pursue good works not to earn our own salvation, or not because we deserve salvation, but because we as Christians are called to do good works to glorify God. And so when we reorient our perspective to focus on God first, it then directs towards other people as well. The success we have in work or in school or even in ministry, however the success comes by, we know that that is not the end all and it's not our only purpose to do things. It's not just to check off another item on the list. It's part of the grander picture of God's design. We are using the talents and the gifts he has given us, and we are not wasting them. We're not just sitting on it and being like the man with one talent who gets cast out from the presence of the master, but we're actually investing our talents into the kingdom. Even if our talents are not directly related to a ministry, we know that the finances we get from the work we do, we can invest into the kingdom. We can pay for people's meals. We can invest into charity. We can invest into missions. More money into the church than just the tithe. We can do all these things with the money we have. The skills we have as well and the networking relationships you make in work, we can turn that as well into mission opportunities and ministry opportunities by treating others the way we want to be treated and by caring for those around us. Or in school if you sit next to somebody, you can reach out to them, become their friend or acquaintance. You can be the only example of Christ in someone's life. The only one. You don't know for sure how many people, a non-believer will bump into that they will call a friend or acquaintance that is actually Christian. You don't. I've had people tell me that they bump into lots of Christians, some on the opposite end, not as much. But you don't know. That's the end of the day. People can be lying to you as well if they're telling you that. But that's not the point. The point is you have an opportunity to steward the gifts you have. So that should be exciting. A little bit nerve-wracking. A little bit of fear because we don't want to waste our opportunity. But it also should be exciting because that is the power of God working within us to spread his glory into all nations and all peoples. So when you view it like that, it causes us to feel much more excited than just feeling tired. But you still may be wondering well, okay, I hear what you're saying but hear me out. Hear me out. I believe I'm serving God. I understand these things. I believe it. I don't just know it in my head. And I'm serving in ministry actively or I'm doing the best that I can but I'm still tired. I'm just physically exhausted. I have a regular sleep schedule. I eat well. I'm physically active. I do all the things that are necessary. But I'm still tired. Well, this is another concept which I've learned in the past few years. It's called the personal sabbatical. It's where you take a small portion of your time ideally one day but understandably if you're just starting out, one day probably seems like too much. So maybe just a few hours on a weekend or on your free day and you just intentionally decide to rest. Modeled after God resting on the sabbatical on the seventh day that is your time to rest and to recharge and to be refreshed in the presence of God. Spending time in His Word away from doing your physical work or your labor away from studying for your class or for your exam away from those over productivity temptations and just taking that time to rest and to enjoy what life has to offer. And taking that time to rest in the sabbatical is important. And I struggle with this because it is counter-cultural. It's counter-intuitive to how some people were raised. It's counter-intuitive to a lot of people who have a productivity-filled mindset. And a sabbatical is not, oh I can just be lazy and watch YouTube all day and all week. That's not a sabbatical, that's just entertainment. A sabbatical is an intentional active dedicated time where you're devoting it to God. So whether that means you spend time reading the Word and prayer or you go out for a walk or you just spend time resting and thinking about the glory of God or however ways it points to God intentionally, then that's a sabbatical. We're not legalistic about it saying it has to be so-and-so serving, volunteering, doing all these things. Although that can certainly help if that's what you're called by God to do. And service really does give us that perspective as well of our place in life and the blessings who God has given to us. And yet sometimes we can forget about it. So when we see those less fortunate, we serve and help them out. And we realize how much God has given to us and how much He could take away at any moment. But I digress from that point. Back to the main point. We want to rest. But we sometimes conflate that and mix it up with idleness. So a sabbatical is not idleness, it's not entertainment. It is an active time dedicated to God. It's just a time where you sit back, a time where you really just think upon how good God is. And when you are done with your sabbatical, it's back to work. It's back to being productive. You had your time to rest, now it's time to work. In the kingdom of God, there are so many people who need to hear the word. Who are not in the kingdom yet, I clarify. But who could be if just one person would live out Christ and speak the word of Christ to them. Just one. The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. So may the Lord send more workers into the harvest. And excuses can be made, but the calling is clear. And so when we have all these things in mind, we may still feel tired, but we now have more energy because the energy comes from God. He gives us that strength. We rely on Him to carry us out and to carry us out of the pit that we are in mentally, physically, or spiritually. Because we can rest in Him and thus we are reoriented onto the right path. And so, continuing on with your tiredness though, you may feel like you go through the checklist and you aren't getting much progress. So in that case you really have to think. You have to question your motives. You have to question what you're doing. Can you be doing something better? But if it goes beyond you and to others, it can be more frustrating. Because you can do everything right, but others may let you down. Well of course you may understand intellectually that God will not let you down, but that is not really that comforting when you're in the middle of a storm. When you're tired, not physically, not inwardly, but you're outwardly tired. You're hearing things that are so negative, or depressing, or causing injustice, or causing pain, or grief, or pity, or whatever bad things exist in this broken and fallen world. I know for me personally, I am tired of just seeing how messed up the world is in terms of Russia and Ukraine, where there are tensions going on in that region of the world. There's threats of war. There's threats of violence. And the rhetoric we're hearing from leaders of the world saying that this could be the worst war in Europe since 1945, according to the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, US President Joe Biden saying that the US intelligence believes Russia will invade Ukraine. Just thinking about the horrible loss of lives and civilians that would be lost in such a situation, regardless of who is at fault for it, is just sobering. And I'm not tired of it because I don't care about it. I'm tired of it because it is draining to think about the sobering realities and possibilities. These things are tough. They're not easy. These situations reveal to us the broken world and it shows to us that things are not yet completed. The war is won spiritually. Let's make that clear. We have the eternal assurance from God's eternal perspective that it all will turn out alright. And so, again, sometimes there's no good answers for why things are messed up like that. It's okay to feel the grief. You can feel the pain that comes when children of God face each other on the battlefield to slaughter each other, along with non-believers slaughtering believers, believers slaughtering non-believers on the battlefield. The pain, the anger, all the negative feelings are justified. But again, we have to make sure we are not consumed by it. We may care about it, which is good. We may be activists to protest against it. That can be good if that's what you feel like God is calling you, as long as your actions glorify God in your protest. But we can't be consumed by it. We must watch and pray. Pray without ceasing and watch and pray so you do not enter into temptation to be consumed by all the negatives of the world and to lose the hope that God has given to us of His eternal victory. And so, in that scale of tiredness, it is not easy to overcome. That's why we must continue to pray fervently to God to prevent catastrophe. You may be listening to this at a later date and you may understand what happened in that situation, whether it was as bad as people thought it would be, whether it was worse or better or whatever. Hindsight is 20-20, but remember we serve a God who is beyond the scope of time. He knows what will happen tomorrow when we forget what happened yesterday. He remembers all of it. He knows. And so, if we truly believe that God is good, we know we are in good hands regardless of how bad things get in the world. And so, in that sense of tiredness, we must be watchful and we must pray and we must continue to hope in our God. So, we talked about two broad brushes of tiredness, physical tiredness, spiritual tiredness. We looked at our personal tiredness and expectations and how we can mitigate that. We also looked into tiredness of seeing the world and how messed up it is. And I just talked about one conflict. There are more conflicts in the world than just that one, both domestically and internationally. But perhaps the most difficult tiredness to deal with is the tiredness that comes when you feel annoyed or you feel frustrated with your peers that are around you. See, when it's within yourself, you know you can pray to God and you know that God can heal you and you can make changes to it. The change doesn't come immediately, but you can make incremental changes just like in the process of sanctification with God's help. Step by step, you eventually get better and you become healed of whatever ailments, spiritual ailments, you may be suffering through. And in global events, you can't really do too much about it other than pray. And so while it is distressing and more consequential on a larger scale, personally, you can make certain actions, but you cannot change things beyond what you can already do. But this middle ground of your peers can be frustrating because you feel like you can do something about it because those people are next to you in your daily life. But yet, you don't see progress in their lives, you don't see change. And so you pray, you feel like nothing happens, that can make you feel tired as well, make you lose hope in God. But don't fall for that. You don't know what God's doing in people's lives around you. You gotta be watchful, you gotta keep praying, just like in the other two concepts we talked about. We don't just live life one way for one situation and then another way for another situation. The gospel of Christ is for our entire life, in all aspects. We cannot fall for the common trap of compartmentalizing our faith, where this part of our Christian walk, we show to the believers who we believe are spiritually mature. This part to the believers who are not as spiritually mature. And this part to the non-believers in Christ. We can't fall for that. We need our life as Christians to be authentic inside and out so that while we may talk about different things with believers compared to non-believers, we're still the same person because we've been transformed by God. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than us if we're somehow better than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than us if we're somehow better than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than us if we're somehow better than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than us if we're somehow better than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than us if we're somehow better than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than us if we're somehow better than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than us if we're somehow better than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than us if we're somehow better than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than us if we're somehow better than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than us if we're somehow better than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than us if we're somehow better than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than us if we're somehow better than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than us if we're somehow better than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than us if we're somehow better than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than us if we're somehow better than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than us if we're somehow better than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than us if we're somehow better than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than us if we're somehow better than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than us if we're somehow better than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than us if we're somehow better than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than us if we're somehow better than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than us if we're somehow better than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than us if we're somehow better than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than us if we're somehow better than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than us if we're somehow better than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than us if we're somehow better than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than us if we're somehow better than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than us if we're somehow better than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than us if we're somehow better than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than us if we're somehow better than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than us if we're somehow better than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than us if we're somehow better than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than us if we're somehow better than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than us if we're somehow better than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. It's not that non-believers are somehow worse than non-believers. That's the main point. I know I go on tangents but I do believe it's important to clarify the gospel message and proper teachings of Christianity to clarify the gospel message and proper teachings of Christianity because again, this is important stuff. We don't want to mess this up. If you find something I say that you don't agree with, totally fine with me. Totally fine. That's not what I'm concerned about. I don't need you to agree with what I'm saying. I don't need you to agree with what I'm saying. So that your heart, although it can be the most corrupted thing without God and if you rely on your flesh, the heart can then become pure and clean because of God. How miraculous is that? But again, you disagree with what I'm saying, I don't mind at all as long as you are drawing closer to God and not further away. Then all the glory to Christ. The easy part is accepting Christ for salvation. That is the quote-unquote easy part but the quote-unquote difficult part, to complete the analogy, is obedience to Christ and that involves the good works we do as believers because that is the natural, genuine and authentic response that believers should have to Christ. Not of ignorance or one where we can sin all the more not of ignorance and wrongdoings all the more but actual obedience out of gratefulness and thankfulness. That is not easy. That is not what the prosperity gospel teachers will tell you in that if you just do good things then you will receive good, blessed things in return. That's a too simplistic view of the Christian moire which can range anywhere from a blessed and prosperous life to hardship and trials where you are persecuted for the faith. It can range on any of those points and the bottom line is as Christians we bear our own cross. That cross can be whatever size or whatever shape or whatever form that God gives to us. Though we bear the cross and we carry it and the Lord helps us when we are weak and he helps us in our race of life to make it to the finish line. So that's the main point of that easy difficult analogy. But again, back to the point away from the tangent. First we need to inspect our own hearts to make sure we are not being toxic or annoying to others unnecessarily. Now the gospel can be annoying to those who are dwelling in sin and ignoring the truth of Christ and that is unfortunate for them but if we are presenting the truth with love and we're following God's timing and his conviction when to speak up then there's really not much else we can do about controlling people's reactions. But again, we need to make sure we're not contributing to the problem. Secondly, if we're not contributing to the problem, that's great, praise God for that but still there's other people who we are concerned about. So in this case when there's other people who we feel annoyed with and we're frustrated with we have to look at ourselves we have to understand how Christ views us again. If we tie back earlier to perspective in our lives that he loved us first, we see the other people the annoyance, we get annoyed but we need to show patience. When things get pushed to the brink and we realize we cannot take it any longer we may need to communicate clearly that this friendship or relationship is not working out. We may need to part ways temporarily or permanently depending on how severe it is. But that's the most extreme case. Until you're sure that that's the case, let's not cut off relationships. This is my opinion, not the church's, not scripture, just my opinion. Only cut off relationships as a last resort when there really is no other option. I'm not saying never do it. You may need to. Someone may have wronged you in such a way that even talking with them is just unsustainable. But that's an extreme. It's called an extreme for a reason. Let's not be rash to cut people out of our lives. Let's not rush the work of the Holy Spirit in other people's lives. Let's not take the matter into our own hands. That should be if our hand is forced. If it really is an extreme last resort where people have wronged us or committed crimes against us or done such things where even though we turned the other cheek and we have forgiven them in our hearts, we still know that in order for there to be justice and for there to be love as well, we may need to cut people out of our lives. Again, a very extreme situation, those are last resorts where there really is no other option. We cannot jump to that first. Again, just my opinion. We can't jump to that extreme first. Forbearance and patience in people's lives is what we need to endure. We look at the perspective of other believers in the world. We see they are being persecuted in authoritarian countries where the gospel is not respected and believing in the gospel can be punishable by death in the extreme or isolation, government persecution and all sorts of sufferings that are much graver than in the United States. So if you're a Christian listening in these countries, remain faithful. God is good. Even though you've suffered greatly, your reward will be so much greater and what you're going through now pales in comparison to the glory of Christ when he returns. Be encouraged. Rejoice that you are suffering. Rejoice in it because great is your reward. The world will never understand why you do that until they convert to Christ and then they will see. But the definition of the world is those who are not converted to Christ. So they will never understand but you do. You have the Holy Spirit in you. You have the Holy Spirit who convicts you of sin, righteousness and judgment and you have this hope. Do not give up while the race is still yet to be won. As I tie back to my original point, let us not grow weary of doing good. Let us not jump to the extreme end and cut things off. Let us show patience. Let us show compassion and understanding. We can express frustration but let's be careful. Let's communicate it clearly when it's warranted and if it's warranted, let us listen to the response as well. We can't expect people to change unless we understand their viewpoint first. We can't expect to talk to people authentically if we respond to them with prescriptive arguments and words where we answer a question they never asked. Then that will push them further away. Answer the question they actually asked or say, I don't know. Let me find out and get back with you. We've got to be careful, brothers and sisters in Christ. We have to be careful. We have to be on guard. The race is not over yet. We still have to run our spiritual race until we cross that finish line and enter the pearly gates of heaven. Or however heaven looks like, but you get what I'm saying. However we make it there. Until we cross that line, it's not over. And so, if we are feeling that burden, the heavy burden, the heavy yoke on our shoulders, we cast it on God and we maybe have to go through the escalatory cycle where we bring things up and the worst case is cut people out if it serves that purpose. If there really is no way around it, even after forgiving them, even after turning your cheek the other way, even after showing them kindness, if there really comes to the point where you have to cut them off and those principles remain true, then you have to do it. But let's not jump to it. The world is watching us, believers. The world is wondering how we are different from those around us. How we are more than just nice people, do-gooders. People who don't get in trouble. People who want to quote love, but who don't actually live according to the Christian principles of the fruit of the Holy Spirit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The world is watching. The world sees that we say we're tired. And of course from time to time we will feel tired. But they watch us and they see us say it all the time for everything. Then how are we different from other people? How are we different from the world? We use the same language the world uses. We sound exactly the same as non-believers. We show the same amount of tolerance for those who wrong us as non-believers. We show the same amount of forgiveness as non-believers show. Maybe even less in some cases. We accept the term tolerance and coexistence with other faiths, but never once tell others the gospel message. The harsh, exclusive nature of the gospel out of love. And of course people can take it too far the other way and go into extreme like fire and brimstone conversion tactics or things along those lines. But again it's difficult. As Christians we need to stand out in a good way. It may be viewed as weird by non-believers. Good. Good. Again, as I said earlier, if we are just like most people, that's average. It's boring. It's mediocre. It is far from what God wants for our lives to just be like most other people. So following Christ fully will be weird in the eyes of non-believers. That is okay. As long as we're not doing it just to show off our supposed moral superiority. We're doing it authentically. We may be persecuted or we may be rewarded. It doesn't matter. What matters is obeying. Obedience. We say to other people who are non-believers, yes, I may feel tired now, but I know that God gives me strength. Or in church I felt tired before, but what I heard in church was life changing. What I heard from God in his word was incredible. I have to tell you what I'm experiencing. You may not believe me, but that's okay because I know what I've been through in my life. I know my experiences. I know that some of it may not be falsifiable, but I know that I've gone through them. My family has gone through them. My friends have gone through them. Let me tell you because I care about you. I want you to know the truth. I want you to know what I think is true. If there's something that I'm saying that you think is not true, then let me know. Let's have a conversation. Not a debate. Unless you want to, but a conversation. Let's just talk about it. And people may be interested. They may not be. I find most people just, they may say, oh that's cool and then move on. Maybe they're not ready to have a conversation yet. But that's the whole point of relational evangelism which is another episode that I will cover at a future time. But again, the whole point of this is obedience to God. And if we obey God, then we are thus different from the world. We may still feel tired from time to time, but it's not over the mundane things in life. It's not the motions anymore of tiredness. We are tired of seeing this fallen world. We are tired of seeing injustices in the world. We are tired of seeing evil go unpunished. We may feel tired of waiting for Christ to return. We want Him to return soon. Even so, come Lord Jesus Christ. We wait patiently. We long for His returning. But we may feel tired if He doesn't return when we expect Him to. See, that tiredness is different. It is not the same as the world. Our faith, our belief, is not just a carbon copy of another religion. It's not just a made-up fairy tale or a cleverly devised myth. It is the truth. If we are Christians, we believe it's the truth. If you're a non-believer, you don't believe it's the truth, obviously, but I encourage you to check it out. Check out a church or check out Christianity or talk to a Christian friend. Just ask them questions. Just ask them questions. That's all I ask. If you know the truth, then the truth sets you free. But again, if you're a non-believer, I wouldn't expect you to believe it based off what I'm saying, because that's what the Holy Spirit does. The Holy Spirit convicts beyond what human reasoning can do. He just uses humans to spread His message. So, if the Holy Spirit is convicting you, that's wonderful. Praise God for that. Again, acknowledge your sin, confess it, and you place your trust in Jesus as the only one who can save you from death. You believe in His resurrection from the dead. You believe He's God. He is the only way to heaven, to the Father. And thus you repent, and your mind is changed, and your heart is transformed, and the Holy Spirit enters your life, and you begin your walk with Christ as a spiritual infant. You may not understand all the books of the Bible, you may not understand the entirety of Christianity, but you understand enough, and that's all that matters in the end. You understand that Jesus died for you. He loves you. That's what you understand. Your faith may be like a child, but that's exactly what God wants. He loves the little children. You must have childlike faith to enter the kingdom of heaven. So, He loves that. So, if you're a non-believer who is convicted to believe, praise God. If you're not convicted to believe, I pray that He does work in your life sooner or later. But, I understand if you don't. I understand. Because if the Holy Spirit isn't working, then you won't change your mind. So, it's understandable. I still plead with you, but I understand from a purely human perspective. But for believers, we believe this, right? We believe that God is good, and that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him. It's not moral therapeutic deism where it's just a bunch of feel-good-ish teachings, and you know, everyone do what you think is right, and God doesn't care. He's gonna love it anyways. It's all so shallow. All so external. Not life-changing. Not impacting your eternity for the better. Not transforming you. Just shallow. Unoffensive. Plain. Boring. Average. And so, maybe I'll talk about moral therapeutic deism another time, but that's a complicated term. But basically, that is a prevalent belief system among people today, and as Christians we must reject it. Unequivocally. Wholeheartedly. Reject. Because again, the Christian faith will seem weird to non-believers. That's the point. If the faith seems normal to someone who doesn't believe in it, then your relationship with God and your Christian walk with the Lord, maybe it's just too similar to the world. But we must remember the world is watching. Again, tying it all together. We may feel tired over a variety of circumstances. Both justified and not as justifiable. But we know God gives us rest. And we know He is with us. He cuts to the core, to the root of our souls when we hear His word. The word that brings life. The word that became flesh. The word that persists and endures forever. And so, as I close this out, just for today, be encouraged and be convicted at the same time. However God's talking to you. Don't listen just to me. Listen to God. He loves you. He wants what is best for you. Do you believe it? Do you believe that God will help you make it through life beyond just you saying I'm tired every day or every week? Do you trust that even though this life is difficult and persecution will occur, that it will all work out in the end because God is good and because God is great? Do you believe it? That's only a question you can answer. But if we really are to thrive as Christians, we must trust in God who gives us rest when we are tired and weary. We cast all our burdens on Him because He loves us and because He cares for us. Because He is with us always to the end of the age. Amen.