Recently I had to get a replacement battery for my iPhone. It just wasn’t keeping the charge anymore. Within a few hours of it being at 100% the charge level dropped rapidly and there was very little charge left on the phone. My choice was very simple. Bin the phone and get a new one or pay for a new battery. I went for the new battery. Although the price of a new iPhone battery is not cheap it’s a lot less expensive than buying a new phone.
The background stress levels of this current pandemic season have gradually increased in recent months as we go through the second wave with many infected and sadly many dying of COVID-19. If you watch or read the news it doesn’t take long before you see the anxiety in the faces of those struggling. And the background stress levels have increased for all of us. It’s a bit like the background feedback or humming noise coming from a speaker system eventually the constant humming in the background is almost unnoticed but it takes its toll.
Raised levels of background stress can accelerate the drainage of energy from our human batteries. The charge levels go down quicker and we are left feeling fatigued, stressed, anxious and depleted much sooner than normally expected. And if we don’t recognise what’s happening then we end up in the red zone. Dangerously exhausted and fatigued.
In Scripture the biblical rhythm of sabbath rest was commanded in order to preserve the overall well-being of God’s people. One day in seven was set aside to focus only on worship and rest. Replenishment was part of the essential rhythm of life. But what if we are living in unprecedented days when stress levels are so unusually high that many are living in the the red zone with very little energy left? Maybe you need a new battery 
.
.Maybe you need extended rest and to put your heart in the hands of the Great Physician. Only he can restore your capacity to hold charge. For you this may mean learning what rest is all about. At first that may be a deeply frustrating prospect but until you give yourself permission to rest you will continue to experience exhaustion and fatigue. So listen carefully to your body, soul and spirit. Listen to wisdom. Listen to God.
“Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.”
Isaiah 40:30-31 NKJV
Richard H H Johnston
Director of Christian Mindfulness