Read Mark 4:35-38
I’m Exhausted!!
When evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s go to the other side [of the sea].” Jesus left the multitude that he had been ministering and teaching to. Then he and his disciples got into their boats to go to the other side. Suddenly a fierce gale of wind came and caused the waves to break over the boat so that it was filling up with water.
In the meantime, Jesus was in the stern, rear of the boat, sound asleep on a cushion. The disciples were afraid and began to awaken Jesus saying, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”
I’m trying to put myself in the place of Jesus to get a sense of what he was experiencing. Jesus had been ministering to multitudes of people for quite some time. He was exhausted. He was so exhausted that when he got into the boat he fell asleep even during a fierce storm. This question comes to my mind when I try and put myself in Jesus’s place.
Why would Jesus minister to someone to the point of exhaustion? I have to conclude in my mind that he loved them. He cared about them. He was concerned about their eternal destination. When we minister to people it’s easy to get frustrated or feel overwhelmed, annoyed, or even exhausted because of the investment of time we put into them. In fact, we often don’t want to feel exhausted. We want life to be easy. We don’t want to invest all this time in someone because it takes away from time you could spend doing something “more” enjoyable.
In Hebrews 12, it says that Jesus joyfully went to the cross for us. He was willing to be exhausted and even sacrificed his life because he loved us. We were worth it to him.
We need to look at every person as an eternal soul and be willing to invest into their lives to the point of exhaustion. Why? Because we love them, we care about them, we care about their eternal destination. We care about their needs. So much so, that we find joy in Ministering to them. They are God’s children and are worthy of being ministered to. So much so, that we are willing to sacrifice sleep if necessary, a fun event, or sacrificing a relaxing time in front of the TV. I’m not saying our lives should be like this every single day, because rest is important. I’m just saying we need to watch our motives when we are helping people so that our motives don’t drive us to walk away from someone God put into our paths.
