Do you feel tired?

I love the analogy that life is just like a race. In a race, there are times when you are full of life and energy and there are also times when you are tired and when energy is running low. That is probably very true of my semester as well. In the beginning, before assignments came, the adrenaline from post exchange got me so happy, excited and renewed for school everyday. I am at the end of my 10th week of the semester and I have come to a point of tiredness. I assume that this tiredness will drag on to the next 3 weeks until my current semester ends.

Well, my week has not all been bad definitely. Even in my busy week, God gave me the opportunity to encourage someone. Just yesterday, when class ended, I managed to talk to a junior of mine when we were on our way home. She told me that she was discouraged in class and that she was not confident of her presentation skills in english as she spoke mostly chinese at home. She felt so as she was one of the discussants in class and she was supposed to facilitate a discussion in class on a presented topic and she felt that she did not do well and felt that the class was rather awkward. I shared with her my experiences in presenting and told her of the many times of practice to get to where I am today. And even then, I am still learning. I also thought of sharing with her what my friend encouraged me in the morning, "Do not stress yourself too much, learn one lesson everyday." And I added, "At the end of the year, you will see yourself with 365 lessons learnt."

However, I still did feel drained many days of the week from completing my assignments, from serving, from meeting people and even in doing housework. I shared with my friend, Maggie, whenever I was stressed and today she shared with me an analogy that came to her when she journal the night before. She gave an analogy that we are like the tank of water. The water from the tank keeps flowing out for different needs. And this tank is attached to a water source. If we attach the tank to a limited supply of water source, the tank cannot continue providing water to supply the different needs. However, if we attach the tank to a limitless supply of water source, water can be provided abundantly for the different needs. We are like the limited supply of water source while God is like the abundant water source.

I really like her analogy as I could identify with it. I knew that in the many things that I am doing, God is not my source. I tried to use my strength, my energy and my capabilities to do almost everything I could in the week and end up feeling tired and even breathless.

Do you feel tired and stressed as well? Do you know where your source of energy comes from?

Well, at the end of the analogy, Maggie encouraged me to pray and to submit everything I do to God for He is the one who would provide even though it seems impossible. Therefore, when you are very tired and very stressed up, pray and remember to depend on God.

I was also reminded of how God provided for the Israelites even as they were in the desert, traveling towards The Promised Land. Finding food and water in the desert seems pretty absurd. But God did just that and provided them water from the rock and manna and quail from heaven. Therefore, I am sure I can go through the next 3 crazy weeks well if I entrust it to God because He would provide when I don't have what I need to go through the week. That goes for you too, if you are tired, entrust yourself to God and He would provide you with what you need exactly the time when you need it. Also, tell me if I can pray for you in anyway :)

I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink." So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.

-Exodus 17:6