Too Busy to Rest?

Last Monday, I noticed a bit of a scratchy throat coming on. I tried to ignore it, but by the time dinnertime rolled around, I had to face facts. I was sick. Running a low temperature, sore throat. Fun days ahead.

Flash forward nearly a week later, and I’m still so feeble from all the medicines I’ve taken that I keep falling asleep in the afternoon. Whatever this germ is, it’s very hard to kill. At its worst, my 5-day sore throat felt like someone stabbing golf pencils in my ears and thumb tacks in the base of my tongue every time I tried to talk. I’ve been through a round of Zithromax (antibiotic) and most of a round of Methylprednisolone (steroids), as well as a steroid shot on my second trip to the doctor’s office. I’ve taken so many pills at a time, it seemed like that was becoming my main source of nutrients. Today, it has moved from my throat to my lungs and nose, but at least I can talk again. I’m going to beat this.

This is not what I had planned for this week. I had planned to wrap up two big multi-week projects at work, as well as attend a training for trainers on gamification (something I had looked forward to for three weeks). In fact, I had a packed schedule for every day on the work calendar. I had planned to end the week with a weekend full of cleaning and decorating in my bedroom (I finally got a shelf to hang on that big blank wall behind my bed), followed by choir at church tomorrow and preparations for another packed week. I had planned to do it all, to scratch off a ton of projects this week, and somehow still find a moment to lean back on my elbows and rest in those accomplishments.

Instead, I turned over all those big work projects and my seat at that training to colleagues and laid down to sleep off my killer germ. My room is more of a mess than it was, and frankly, I don’t care right now. Maybe that’s the medicine head talking? And my voice is shot, so I am not thinking about choir; in fact, I think I will probably stay home with my cooties and watch the live stream of church tomorrow.

Germ, ten points. To-do list, zero.

You know, I had been thinking I was feeling run down and under-motivated last week. Something about fall always makes me feel intensely restless, and I tend to fill up my schedule and keep it that way. Perhaps I am trying to make sure I end out my year with a feeling of accomplishment, rather than a big fizzle. I guess my body was trying to warn me about the Germ of Doom, but of course, I didn’t listen. I thought skipping some evening plans last Saturday night and going to bed early would fix it. Nope.

Surely I’m not alone in feeling the fall restlessness, right?

I wish I could offer some great, godly advice about how to schedule your life in a healthy way so you don’t end up like me, too busy to rest until you’re too sick not to. I’ve had a lot of time to dream up some great inspirational sayings while staring at the ceiling above my bed, but I spent most of that time, well, dreaming.

So I’ll say this:

I know that God didn’t make us to be human doings instead of human beings. If that’s where you find yourself today, check your to-do list for spaces to rest. Make some, if they’re not there. Fall is a season of wonder, where the trees teach us how to go out with a bang. Don’t miss it.

Don’t collapse like I did. I guess that’s the lesson for this week.