Today, I saw a post on Facebook. I scrolled past it without reading it, then went back because I saw who shared it. A girl who is around 16 years old shared a Tumblr post that read the following.
--
When someone asks me
“What is wrong?”
I simply reply with
“I’m just tired.”
And they agree,
And say to take a nap.
But you see,
This exhaustion,
Is not something simply
Resolved by sleeping
I cannot simply shut my eyes
And wake up okay
I need a break from
My brain
My heart
My life
I need to go away
Just for a little while.
--
This is what this little girl posted on her Facebook for the world to see. The great part about it? People clicked the “like” button underneath the photo. I couldn’t help but observe that the age group of people that hit that stupid little “like” button were all under the age of 25 as well.
The worst part about this post is that when I was 16 I probably would have agreed with it. Hormones were raging through my body as they do with any teenager, and in the world we live in today, being tired, maybe a little sad, and aware of only your own problems are accepted as “normal teenager behavior.”
I wish someone had slapped 16-year-old me and reminded me that I was not put on this earth to take a break from my underdeveloped brain and my petty heart that in reality only pumps blood through my body. (Seriously; try taking a break from that, see where it gets you.) I wish that in the moments where I shared thoughts similar to the one in this Tumblr post, I had been whisked away across the Atlantic Ocean and plopped down next to the 3 little girls I met while walking in Soma, Senegal (A country in Africa) Those girls might not even be alive right now. I met them at 18 when I traveled to Senegal on a church trip. I got to see how much joy they had. I got to dance with them and laugh with them. They braided my hair (and boy did that hurt). They weren’t asking for a break; they weren’t asking for a little bit of time “away.” They were finding joy in even the hardest of moments.
I’ve been reading a book called The Hiding Place, by Corrie Ten Boom. It’s an incredible story about a woman who was helping Jew’s survive the holocaust and a paragraph that she wrote struck me pretty hard today. She writes about a time where she spent months in a jail cell confined and alone while fighting pleurisy with effusion pre-tuberculosis. Here is an excerpt from her memories in solitary confinement.
I gulped entire Gospels at a reading, seeing whole the magnificent drama of salvation. And as I did, an incredible thought prickled the back of my neck. Was it possible that this – all of this that seemed so wasteful and so needless – this war, Scheveningen prison, this very cell, none of it was unforeseen of accidental? Could it be part of the pattern first revealed in the gospels? Hadn’t Jesus been defeated as utterly and unarguably as our little group and our small plans had been? But… if the Gospels were truly he pattern of God’s activity, then defeat was only the beginning. I would look around at the bare little cell and wonder what conceivable victory could come from a place like this.
This, my friends, is such perspective. My young friend who shared her Tumblr post on Facebook, looking for comfort in people’s sorrow for her, lacks such a thing. Perspective is incredible, and really heart-wrenching. This woman was fighting a sickness that almost killed her, while in solitary confinement for saving lives. If anyone deserved to ask for a break, or even a nap, it was her. But she strived to find the parallels of the Gospel behind her struggling. She strived to learn and better grasp the purpose of her existence. She realized that even though she may not understand why these horrid things were happening, God was in control.
I wish that my generation and the children that are being raised now were more aware that we aren’t put here for ourselves. I wish we had a better understanding of why Jesus did what he did. I wish I was better at seeing perspective, especially on the hard days, but also in the easy ones. I’ve been redeemed and that is definitely worth celebrating, but I’ve also been commanded. Corrie Ten Boom didn’t wallow in self-pity. She delved into the scripture and spent time talking with God and she gained a great deal of wisdom from that.
James opens his book in the bible with this. “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” We will never gain wisdom or perseverance when we are asking for breaks and napping. Don’t get me wrong, an occasional nap is fantastic, but when we lose sight of this battle we’re fighting it’s basically taking our freedom for granted and takes away the value of salvation.
Look around you. Are you like Corrie, finding Christ in everything, and purpose even when you don’t know what it’s meaning is? Or are you like my 16-year-old friend who is too lazy to fight the good fight?
Hebrews 12:
Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
--
When someone asks me
“What is wrong?”
I simply reply with
“I’m just tired.”
And they agree,
And say to take a nap.
But you see,
This exhaustion,
Is not something simply
Resolved by sleeping
I cannot simply shut my eyes
And wake up okay
I need a break from
My brain
My heart
My life
I need to go away
Just for a little while.
--
This is what this little girl posted on her Facebook for the world to see. The great part about it? People clicked the “like” button underneath the photo. I couldn’t help but observe that the age group of people that hit that stupid little “like” button were all under the age of 25 as well.
The worst part about this post is that when I was 16 I probably would have agreed with it. Hormones were raging through my body as they do with any teenager, and in the world we live in today, being tired, maybe a little sad, and aware of only your own problems are accepted as “normal teenager behavior.”
I wish someone had slapped 16-year-old me and reminded me that I was not put on this earth to take a break from my underdeveloped brain and my petty heart that in reality only pumps blood through my body. (Seriously; try taking a break from that, see where it gets you.) I wish that in the moments where I shared thoughts similar to the one in this Tumblr post, I had been whisked away across the Atlantic Ocean and plopped down next to the 3 little girls I met while walking in Soma, Senegal (A country in Africa) Those girls might not even be alive right now. I met them at 18 when I traveled to Senegal on a church trip. I got to see how much joy they had. I got to dance with them and laugh with them. They braided my hair (and boy did that hurt). They weren’t asking for a break; they weren’t asking for a little bit of time “away.” They were finding joy in even the hardest of moments.
I’ve been reading a book called The Hiding Place, by Corrie Ten Boom. It’s an incredible story about a woman who was helping Jew’s survive the holocaust and a paragraph that she wrote struck me pretty hard today. She writes about a time where she spent months in a jail cell confined and alone while fighting pleurisy with effusion pre-tuberculosis. Here is an excerpt from her memories in solitary confinement.
I gulped entire Gospels at a reading, seeing whole the magnificent drama of salvation. And as I did, an incredible thought prickled the back of my neck. Was it possible that this – all of this that seemed so wasteful and so needless – this war, Scheveningen prison, this very cell, none of it was unforeseen of accidental? Could it be part of the pattern first revealed in the gospels? Hadn’t Jesus been defeated as utterly and unarguably as our little group and our small plans had been? But… if the Gospels were truly he pattern of God’s activity, then defeat was only the beginning. I would look around at the bare little cell and wonder what conceivable victory could come from a place like this.
This, my friends, is such perspective. My young friend who shared her Tumblr post on Facebook, looking for comfort in people’s sorrow for her, lacks such a thing. Perspective is incredible, and really heart-wrenching. This woman was fighting a sickness that almost killed her, while in solitary confinement for saving lives. If anyone deserved to ask for a break, or even a nap, it was her. But she strived to find the parallels of the Gospel behind her struggling. She strived to learn and better grasp the purpose of her existence. She realized that even though she may not understand why these horrid things were happening, God was in control.
I wish that my generation and the children that are being raised now were more aware that we aren’t put here for ourselves. I wish we had a better understanding of why Jesus did what he did. I wish I was better at seeing perspective, especially on the hard days, but also in the easy ones. I’ve been redeemed and that is definitely worth celebrating, but I’ve also been commanded. Corrie Ten Boom didn’t wallow in self-pity. She delved into the scripture and spent time talking with God and she gained a great deal of wisdom from that.
James opens his book in the bible with this. “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” We will never gain wisdom or perseverance when we are asking for breaks and napping. Don’t get me wrong, an occasional nap is fantastic, but when we lose sight of this battle we’re fighting it’s basically taking our freedom for granted and takes away the value of salvation.
Look around you. Are you like Corrie, finding Christ in everything, and purpose even when you don’t know what it’s meaning is? Or are you like my 16-year-old friend who is too lazy to fight the good fight?
Hebrews 12:
Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.