Thursday, July 16, 2015

Encouragement for the Exhausted!

I woke up this morning feeling tired and lacking in enthusiasm to continue with teaching, and wanting to cut corners and not teach everything.

In morning devotions, I am reading from the letter to the Hebrews and this morning reached chapter  6:11 & 12

"I want to encourage each one of you to show the same energetic enthusiasm for the task of bringing your hope to its full, assured goal. You mustn’t become lazy."

I know this is really addressing the point of not giving up the goal of living out the Christian life to the full, but in this case that part of my Christian life is to train the women here as much as I can in the remaining short time - even if I am tired.

Tom Wright's commentary on this passage goes on to say:

Most of us will recognize the picture and its challenge. Most of us have started projects and got bogged down: learning a new language, trying to lose weight, painting a picture, reading a long and difficult book. Or even, we might add, starting a business, opening a shop or building a house.

Often we discover, some way into such projects, that we really aren’t cut out for such things, and then it may be better to put it aside rather than carry on and make things worse. But often, not least when something is really worthwhile, there are several distinct phases to the process: the initial burst of enthusiasm and the excitement of something quite new, the gradual seeping away of energy as we reach the hard grind of carrying on, and then the days, and perhaps the weeks and even years, when we get out of bed without enthusiasm, without desire to work on the project, wishing we could have some other novelty to excite us, but realizing that there is a goal ahead which will make it all worthwhile if only we can put one foot in front of another until we get there.


[Wright, N.T. (2011-05-31). Hebrews for Everyone (New Testament for Everyone) (pp. 61-62). Westminster John Knox Press. Kindle Edition. ]

So today, I will strive to put one foot in front of the other, and keep my thoughts coherent and press on to the goal of teaching as much as I can in the remaining time.


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