Die Tired

I ate lunch with a teacher of mine from high school who I respect greatly. He graduated from Taylor and has done many of the things that I either have done already or am going to be doing in the future. I value his advice greatly and I respect his thoughts - I have learned much from him. While we were talking today, he told me a story about Charles Spurgeon.

Charles Spurgeon was a Christian leader that pastored a church in the late 1800's. His church had a following of over 6,000 members. 6,000! Each Sunday, he would give at least four or five sermons; each service would hear the same sermon because 6000 people just couldn't hear him all at once. All of these he did without a microphone, so his voice would have to boom over the crowd in order for everyone to hear. Each week, he penned each sermon by hand, as well as wrote numerous other works. He was the only paid member on the church staff, so a majority of the leadership fell upon his shoulders. He made it a point to meet at least once for a one-on-one time with each male head of house in the congregation. He worked tirelessly, gave much, and lived deeply.

A friend of Spurgeon's once asked him if he needed a break ever because he just seemed to be moving all of the time. I mean, burnout almost seems inevitable when you are in such a position as this man. In a not-so-eloquent paraphrase, Spurgeon replied, "The way I see it, I have an eternity to rest, so I'll die tired."

This is exactly the motivation I needed to hear. Burnout has worried me ever since I started getting more involved in student development and youth. I found myself getting tired after my PA experience in Ireland, after Youth Conference, and so on and so forth. It is so easy to throw in the towel and turn inward instead of moving outward, and I find myself wanting to do that just as much as the next guy. And I recognize the need for personal growth. I know that I need to be poured into so that I can pour into others as well, and I feel as though that shouldn't be a problem next year since there are so many older, wiser and experienced individuals than me. But why not just turn myself off, turn off my emotions and my thoughts as I so easily can do?

Spurgeon hit the nail on the head. As Christians, we have the gift of eternal life in which we can rest in the arms of the Creator and praise Him along with our brothers and sisters. Forever is quite a long time, if I remember correctly. If we have so long to spend in heaven, what are we doing here? We, who have such a precious gift to offer, have a huge responsibility. As Maximus said in Gladiator, "what we do here echoes in eternity". I do not want it to be said of me that I gave just enough to get by and then took a breather whenever I could. I want to share in the sufferings of Christ so that I may also share in His glory, because what we go through now isn't even worth comparing to the magnificence that will be revealed within us (Romans 8:17,18).

I know that the road will be tough, extremely tough. But so was His.

Die tired.