Learning to Rest: Give Your TCK Burdens to Jesus

My heart beats frantically, anxiety roiling in my stomach. My mind swirls with worries and fears that claw at my sanity. Exhaustion makes even the easiest of tasks seem hard. And I find myself snapping irrationally at every little annoyance.

Have you ever felt it? 

That bone-deep exhaustion to your core? That feeling that you can’t take one more day, one more week, one more month of this? The desperate cry of your heart to rest, to go numb to the world, and let it all fall away?

I’m going to guess that if you’re at all human, you’ve felt this way at some point in your life.

It’s part of living in a fallen world where the pressures and worries of everyday life tug and press on us every single day. Where they threaten to topple our physical, emotional, and spiritual limits.

Some days, you might not feel those limits quite as much. Other days, you might feel so fragile that you’re worried you might break.

Soul-Deep Exhaustion

This past Sunday, after having taken a month-long sabbatical with his family, my pastor spoke on the importance of rest.

He talked about how sometimes the deepest type of exhaustion is not physical or emotional, but spiritual exhaustion.

The kind of exhaustion that happens when we’ve reached the limit of what we can do on our own. Of carrying burdens we can’t carry. Of trying to meet the demands of ministry when our resources are not enough. 

Of trying to do things only God can do.

This is the kind of exhaustion that threatens to break your soul.

TCK Burdens

As TCKs, we face many soul-wearying burdens.

We face the burden of being different. Of expending so much energy trying to look and act like the people around us so that we don’t stand out quite as much.

We face the burden of grief and loss. Of trying to hide our tears of homesickness for people and places thousands of miles away while pasting on a smile so everyone thinks we’re okay.

We face the burden of being overwhelmed in a new place. Of learning to find our place in a new community and figuring out what our new purpose is here.

We face the burden of misunderstanding. Of carefully choosing our words based on who we’re talking to because other people just don’t get the struggles we hide beneath the surface.

These are just a few of the burdens we carry every day. Burdens that feel unbearable at times. Burdens that threaten to break us altogether. Sometimes they might even make us question whether God is really there.

The Paradoxical Solution

As my pastor pointed out, Jesus’ solution to this soul-weary exhaustion is rather paradoxical.

He calls us to do the very things we feel we cannot do anyway. 

He promised childless Abraham and Sarah that their descendants would rival the stars. He instructed Moses, who was inexperienced at orating, to speak to Pharaoh. He commanded Gideon to attack the Midianites with only a few hundred men.

He wants what little, insufficient, weak things we have to give.

Why?

Because it is in our weakness that God is most glorified.

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
 2 Corinthians 12:9 ESV

Jesus Supplies Himself

“Come to me,” Jesus says in Matthew 11:28, “and I will give you rest.”

Instead of making us into some kind of superheroes who can accomplish anything, He calls us to work as co-laborers with Him. To take His yoke upon us and draw from His strength.

Not our own.

After all, that’s the whole point of the gospel. We aren’t enough to do it on our own.

Instead, Jesus promises to provide what we need in Himself. To make Himself the supply. Through His Holy Spirit, He empowers us with the strength we need to carry on and learn to leave our burdens at His feet.

What It Means for You

For some of us, this is the time of year when the busyness of summer is wrapping up and we’re heading back into the grueling work of classes.

For others, you might be facing a crossroads of transition, wondering what changes lie ahead in your future.

For others, there might be no change at all – only another day, week, or month at a job you’ve been doing.

No matter what season you might be in, remember to cry out to Jesus.

Cling to His strength and fullness, and trust that He will carry you through when you’re at the end of your rope and can’t take it anymore.

Rest, knowing that while you may not be enough, Jesus is and always will be. 

Lean into Him, dear TCK.

And let Him do the rest.