It was a particularly dense weekend. And I woke up Monday morning feeling every one of the five services I had attended. My head was splitting and my hair was still full of the hairspray that I had used to keep my curls intact from the day before.
I looked rough and felt rougher and that’s when I discovered them.
Let me back up a bit…
On Friday evening, we welcomed company that would be our guests for the next three nights. We were their Children’s Pastors, Youth Pastors, and had the honor of standing up with them in their wedding. When they were expecting their first child, we got a surprise visit from them - just so they could tell us in person.
There are certain types of people that whenever you see them, you just pick up wherever you left off. They’re that type.
We were truly looking forward to spending the weekend together and I wanted to ensure their stay with us to be an enjoyable one.
Most of you know what company looks like - extra. Extra cleaning to be done. Extra groceries to be purchased. Extra bedding to be made. And not to say that company isn’t a joy to have and host, it just means extra.
And leading into the weekend, I had done a whole lot of extra.
Now, normally Fridays are “Family Day” where we rest and recover, gearing up for our two biggest days of the week - Church Day! But that particular Friday I didn’t do a whole lot of resting nor recovering as I was consumed with putting things away from two bedrooms that had been deep-cleaned the day before.
I had random piles to deal with and loads of laundry to wash.
Whenever company comes to stay, my oldest willingly gives up his bed and room for our guests - leaving him to sleep on an air-mattress on his brother’s bedroom floor. With the realization that the air-mattress he normally uses had popped a while back and hadn’t been replaced, a quick run to Walmart was necessary.
Living 8-minutes away from the store means no matter how fast my “quick” is, it still seems to take a minimum of an hour to get the children strapped in, drive to the store, unstrap the children, pick out the cart, push my entourage around, select the purchases, pay, find the vehicle in the parking lot, empty the cart of children and supplies, strap everyone back into their respective seats, and make the 8-minute drive back home. (No wonder people comment and/or stare.)
Once home, I unloaded everyone and everything before making a quick lunch and laying the little ones down for their nap.
I spent the next several hours randomly cleaning - including the turtle tank and the main bathroom.
At 5PM I made my way downstairs to the kitchen to spend the next hour doing supper prep. As I will be entering a Creamy White Chili into a Chili Cook-off next weekend, I wanted to practice on my guests. Risky, yes I know.
Our guests arrived a little before 6PM and I decided that the house was going to be “As Is” with no apologies necessary. This was our home and we lived in it.
Supper was spicy and delicious and as it comes to having company that you haven’t seen for months, there is always much to catch up on. We stayed up late talking.
Saturday morning arrived and we had a meeting at the church that required both my husband and I to be at. Thankfully our guests were willing to also be our babysitters, so we left the children in their capable hands.
Hours later, we arrived back home where I made a late lunch of grilled cheese and tomato soup. I laid the little ones down for their nap again and intended on sitting a little more than the day before. I hoped to drink a cup of tea and maybe get some writing done. Instead, my good intentions were swallowed up with more cleaning, dishes, and preparing for our upcoming two days of five services.
Yes, five.
Our church that we planted and pastor has grown from 70 people from our Launch in February 2014, to well over 1,000 in attendance.
Weekends are amazing. And exhausting.
We had a special weekend with lots of excitement and vision casting which only compounded the exhaustion. Each service was powerful, emotional, and left me feeling more and more spent.
When church was over, I swung through Casey’s for three large pizzas that would surely feed our family and company. Lunch on Sundays are anywhere from 1:30PM – 3PM, so I was feeling pretty good about it only being a little after 2PM.
Sunday afternoons call for “comfy” in our house and my sweatpants welcomed me gladly.
Slowly, surely, exhaustion settled in and I ended up falling asleep to the movie we started on our couch in the Family Room. At 5 o’clock.
Now, by this point you may have felt that you’ve been invited to my Pity Party and have arrived just in time to watch me pull out my violin and commence my sad, miserable song.
If so, you’ve misunderstood me. This is not me whining or complaining. This is me just stating the facts.
And sometimes the facts can leave us feeling uncomfortable because they have a tendency to pull the emotion out of the truth.
The truth is, I absolutely love what I do.
The fact is, I was tired. So very tired.
The children’s bedtime arrived and after I got them to bed, I caught an eighth wind. Without wanting to be a rude host, I put my kitchen and living room back in order and we stayed up late talking. Again.
We’ve all reached that level of exhaustion where even our bones hurt. Our emotional state is fragile at best. Instead of craving caffeine, we crave sleep - hours or even days of it.
And that’s exactly where I was.
The Bible says in Psalm 30:5b, “Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning.”
When we reach that level of exhaustion and feel that we have nothing left to give, the best thing we can do in those situations is to simply go to bed. It can be as easy and brushing your teeth, shutting off the alarm, and saying, ‘Goodnight.’
And that’s exactly what I did……