How I Discovered Exhaustion is My Kryptonite

You know that feeling when everything’s clicking in your life, when you’re at your most creative, most productive, most energetic, most satisfied? It can feel like you have superhuman powers. As if you can do it all!

And then, IT hits.

That thing which zaps all your creativity, all your energy, all your mojo. Like when Superman got too close to Kryptonite and it drained all his superhuman strength.

What is your Kryptonite? What drains you and threatens to take you off course?

Mine has to be exhaustion, an accumulated lack of sleep. I’m a bit of a workhorse, so I can typically keep plowing ahead on my projects no matter how tired I am. But, when all that lack of sleep catches up to me, it can really take me down.

This past week, my little boy has been suffering from a fierce ear infection. For six days, he couldn’t sleep, waking around 2am every morning in pain and then unable to go back to sleep. And who do the kids always want around when they’re not feeling well? Mommy! So, I’ve been up with him at 2am for days. Days of only getting a few hours of sleep, then up all day taking care of a sick little man and trying to keep up with work, too.

I hit the wall. HARD!

More than just being exhausted, though, I began to question everything I’m doing in life. All the ‘extras’ that my sleepwalking brain couldn’t handle through the fog of exhaustion.

I was too tired to put together a coherent sentence, so I began to question why I was even writing this blog.

I was too tired to focus my eyes for reading, so I began to feel like I couldn’t handle whatever was in my inbox.

I was too tired to clean up my house, so I began to feel like I couldn’t ever be creative in such a mess.

I was too tired to pray, so I began to question that I’d ever heard God correctly about what He wanted me to be doing.

See how Kryptonite can affect us? Not only does it drain us of our strength, but it can take us completely off course. My exhaustion almost convinced me to get off the path God’s laid out for me and head for something easier instead. After all, walking this path of faith and following God’s call can be HARD!

What is it for you? What is it that takes you off course? What causes you to question your path, your calling? And how do you pull yourself out of it?

In the midst of this tiring, foggy week, I was blessed with so many little reassurances and encouragements. A shower of reminders that I’m on the right path and I need to forge ahead — after I get some rest!

So, I will not let exhaustion take me off the course God has set for my life! I will not let 2am defeat me!

I will take some time to catch up on sleep, to rest my weary body and soul. Then, I will regroup, reenergize and reemerge with a renewed spirit!

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV)

I’m so grateful to all of God’s messengers who have encouraged me over the past couple of weeks, most of whom probably have no idea the impact their words and actions had. Isn’t that one of the beauties of faith?

Don’t let your Kryptonite defeat you! See it for what it is – an unwelcome intruder. Kick it to the curb as soon as you can and then press on!