Ignoring God Doesn’t End Well.
The other week I crashed out, hard. I had been burning both ends of the candle for three weeks straight. I worked three days, sunup till after dark on the hottest days of the year working on my truck. I went to a three-day seminar where we were doing things all day till about 9 PM and then sleeping on a bed (graciously provided) which I am not used to and didn’t sleep well on. I had been doing strenuous tasks along with Kathy trying to help get our daughter’s house ready to sell, and I had been trying to do all my regular stuff as well.
Then one morning I went to the Y and did an extra heavy workout. I tried to do too much and I paid for it. All of a sudden, I needed to lie down. I started to grey-out. I rested a bit and went to the locker-room but had to go down on the floor again. I was spent and I didn’t see it coming. Apparently, I’m not superman. I’m not even the “me” my brain thinks I am because in my head, I’m still 35.
After some rest I was able to get to the lobby… with a little help. A guy I see there a lot got me a cold Gatorade and that greatly helped. I had to call Kathy to come to get me as I knew I shouldn’t drive. She wanted me to go to the ER but I had her take me home where I got a cool shower and an hour in bed. I was then able to go to work.
I realized that I hadn’t taken a day off in three weeks. All of my off days from church were spent doing hard work on several other things and I just wasn’t up for it. Maybe when I was 35 I could do that just fine, but we aren’t made for it, and the older we get the less tolerance our bodies have for it.
Oddly enough God has an idea or two about how we are supposed to operate. He told us many times that we need a day of rest in seven. Specifically in Deuteronomy 5:12-15. Unfortunately, this became a legalistic ritual to follow instead of what it was. In Mark 2:27 Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
This applies to so many things in our lives. When we look at the rules God put in scripture we need to understand that they were made for our benefit not as legalistic commands. God knows what we need. He also knows what’s not good for us. We might seem to do OK for a while ignoring what He has told us is good for us, but eventually we are going to crash out, hard. It’s best if we listen, and by listen, I mean obey.