CONTEXT

About a month and a half ago, I was given the assignment of typing up an article entitled Emotional Fatigue (email me if you’d like a copy). As I typed, I saw many of the patterns described present in my own life. It almost felt as if I was typing about myself!

The article addressed the tendency of many Christian workers to overwork themselves and find themselves totally depleted emotionally. At first, I thought I couldn’t possibly be a candidate for this, as I was only just starting my fourth year of ministry since graduating from university. I’m so young, I thought, there’s no way this could be my problem. Perhaps I was just tired from the last 12 months of transitions.

It wasn’t until I read about one example of a young woman who had started serving in high school, continued in university and found herself in trouble by the time she started full-time ministry that it hit me: Life needs to be looked at in context.

My context was that I have been actively involved in church leadership, school ministry and extracurricular activities on top of maintaining top grades for longer than I had given myself credit for. A combination of growing up in a church plant, wanting to prove my love for God and having a responsible and conscientious personality meant that I started participating in youth group committee at the ripe young age of 12. Calculating backwards, I had been essentially serving and living a high-paced, action-packed life with no significant pauses or breaks for 14 years!

I had been so used to looking only at the present and future of my life, I had neglected to step back and look at the greater context. Where I am now, I discovered, is greatly affected by where I came from. And where I am now will in turn affect where I will be.