Exhaustion Wars

Long days that turn into long nights which turn into long weeks is often the normative for pastoral ministry. 

Multiple phone calls, intense meetings, staff emergencies, building crisis-es, fundraising efforts as well as faith-raising challenges, mission and outreach endeavors, and not to mention the on-going care of persons- spiritually, emotionally, and physically as your congregation 'ages' into senior saints is the short list of a pastor's responsibilities. 

Pastor are not the only vocations who are worn out- emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually- by the huge adaptive challenges we face daily. 

Care-giving vocations which impact our communities at their core such as teachers, police officers, nurses, social workers, mental health professionals, fire fighters, and EMT's experience the 'squeeze' of the shifting times, attitudes, and weight of care-giving within our American culture. 

I wish I could remember what lecture I attended when I heard the speaker say, "It takes a person 48-72 hours to recover and re-stabilize from a strongly intense, emotional interaction."  Hmm.  48-72 hours of recovery time. 

So, when I was in a season of pastoral ministry in which I presided over 31 funerals in 36 months (and those thirty-one funerals did not include the deaths of my father, my best friend's husband, and the death of our beloved golden Labrador retriever); I remember trying to ascertain if there was even enough calendar days between such events to 'recover and re stabilize'. 

Simply put, the vintage photo of the exhausted woman above looks a lot more put together than I ever did recovering and moving on during that season of leadership.  LOL!

Compare that with the kind of exhaustion which is picture to the right.  Physical labor is tough on the body and the mind. 

Last week during a 4.5 hour shift I walked 11,000 steps!  Whew- again the woman on the right looks better than I did after lifting totes and moving merchandise all over a 1 million square foot warehouse. 

Yet, what I am re-learning during my season of laboring in the "Amazon"... is that my recovery from exhaustion is much swifter than it ever was when I labored in God's vineyard. 

The lesson in all this is not to avoid care-giving. People of our world need pastors, teachers, fire-fighters, social workers, mental health counselors, rabbis and imams more than ever!  The need is so very GREAT!  And many of us are well wired, trained, and equipped for this great work! 

The lesson for me is that there are different kinds of tired and so too there are different modes of recovery... perhaps if the care-givers of our world are laboring so heavily... they need more frequent or deeper seasons of respite.  Or naps.

Naps are good for any kind of tired.