What To Do When You’re Feeling Drained

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. – Romans 15:13

Over the past two years of serving in youth ministry with my husband, I’ve been asked to handle some very random tasks and responsibilities. I’ve blown up inflatable astronauts and aliens. I’ve walked out of Kroger with 32 cans of whipped cream in my cart. And I’ve filled squirt bottles with neon powdered paint in the church bathroom. It’s the furthest thing from boring to be married to a youth pastor.

One of the most recent jobs Kevin asked me to do was to inflate a kiddie pool he was going to use for a game one Wednesday night. The pool had been used the week before for Slip’n’Slide kickball, but part of it had deflated some and needed to be re-inflated for the next week. So I took care of it a few days before youth group.

However, when I showed up on Wednesday, the top of the pool had deflated since I had last blown it up and needed more air. At this point, I knew there was a hole somewhere in the top of the pool. So I re-inflated it that night, knowing it would last long enough to be used for the game before it deflated again. But I made a mental note to tell Kevin that we needed to patch the hole later on if we wanted to keep the pool for future use.

Now, you might be wondering, “Kristen, why the heck are you telling me a story about a kiddie pool with a hole in it?” Great question! I think this kiddie pool offers a very important analogy that we all need to consider. And in order to do that, I want to ask you this question:

Is there something in your life that is deflating you? Is there something that’s sucking the life out of you and causing you to feel the furthest thing from filled up?

Maybe it’s a relationship that you know isn’t good for you. Maybe it’s feelings of worry and anxiety that are consuming your every thought. Maybe it’s anger and bitterness toward someone who hurt you. Or maybe it’s an overwhelming sense of sadness and depression as you deal with grief and disappointment.

Once you identify what’s deflating you, I want to encourage you to take the time to start thinking about how you’re going to address that issue. You can’t do what I did with the kiddie pool and just try to fill yourself up for the time being, knowing this problem is just going to deflate you again later. That’s just a temporary fix to a much more persistent problem.

So often I feel like we take the easy way out and try to fill ourselves up without addressing the thing that’s draining us. We try to numb ourselves with friends, social media, food, busyness, or other distractions, trying to gain some sense of fulfillment and peace. But when we refuse to set aside time to seek the Lord and ask for clarity and wisdom on how to address what’s going on deep within our hearts, we’re going to continue to feel drained. We’re never going to feel full.

The good news is that when we seek Jesus in these situations, He promises to bring us healing. He promises to help us carry the load of whatever is weighing us down and draining us. And He promises to give us wisdom if we ask for it. But that means we have to step back from the temporary fixes and run to Him instead.

I realize this might be a little uncomfortable. I know it’s not easy to dig deep within yourself and figure out the root of the pain you’re experiencing, especially when it’s much more convenient to ignore it or suppress it. But friend, I think this is work worth doing. I think it’s worth asking Jesus to reveal the deeper issues to you so that you can heal from them for good. And I think it’s worth searching for a long-term solution rather than continuing to implement a temporary fix.

In other words, don’t treat your soul like I treated that kiddie pool. The Lord wants more for you than that. I want more for you than that. And if I had to guess, I’d bet you want more for yourself than that, too.