The year of 2024 didn’t go anything like I thought it would. January started out great! But February landed me sick and experiencing something I still don’t fully understand. It forced my life to come to a complete stand-still for six weeks. Even after that, we had to cut out 80% of my normal activities. Writing and podcasting stopped cold for whole twelve months.
Now, a year later, I look back with gratefulness for how God kept me and my family through the last twelve months. As I pick up podcasting and writing again, I wanted to share some of the lessons I’ve learned this past year.
While much of my experience remains mysterious, we did gain some clarity after seeing a neurologist last August. She suspects a viral infection got into my central nervous system, but can’t know for sure as I would have needed a lumbar puncture back in February to know for certain. Unfortunately, my doctor at the time discouraged that.
Amidst the mystery, however, God has been working in our lives. There are fifteen lessons that I’ve frequently reflected on in the last eight months. Some are more significant than others, but as I continue to learn more deeply what it means to live a whole and healthy life, these are top of mind. I will share four of them with you here. If you’d like to read about all fifteen, you can do so when you become a member of Unfeigned Christianity on Patreon.
For now, let me share with you about four elements I’ve learned in this past year that are essential for living a whole and healthy life:
1. Acknowledging and Living Within Your Limitations
I’ve come to believe that living within my limitations is a spiritual discipline necessary for me to practice as a disciple of Jesus. This goes the whole way around.
Living within my limitations financially and saving money is a part of cultivating contentment as well as creating margin for the future. Consumerism pervades our culture. You might say it’s one of the idols Americans worship most. To live within our limitations financially is to stand against selfish consumerism and the mindset of instant gratification.
In any area of life, living within my limitations is a way to acknowledge that I am not God. I am human. I have limits. I have constraints to my time. I have constraints to my mental capacity. I even have constraints to my emotional capacity. The spirit of God does not make me superhuman. Rather, God’s Spirit empowers me to walk according to the way of Jesus. Part of walking in the way of Jesus is to rest in the fact that Yahweh is God. I can’t do that when I’m living beyond my limitations.
2. Sleep Is Not a Luxury
Now please understand, I am a parent of young children. I serve on the leadership team of our church and work fulltime. There are many times when it feels as though sleep is a luxury.
But hear me out.
Have you ever paid attention to how we talk about sleep? We literally brag about not getting sleep!
“How are you doing?”
“Good. But tired! Was up at five this morning for work, and we had a late a night with friends last night.”
What is that? Is that supposed to be impressive? It more implies that (a) you might be a workaholic and (b) you don’t know how to set healthy boundaries with friends.
And if we dig a little deeper, we might discover negative emotions that feel less distinct when working hard or hanging out with people. But doing anything out of a drive to feel less negativity in our lives, whether it be conscious or not, isn’t healthy.
We tend to treat sleep and time like money. First, we view it as a bonus, a luxury add-on if you hit your goals. Second, we act as though we could make it up another day. You know, just as we might work a few extra hours this month to make up for the extra money we spent last month.
The reality, though, is that sleep and time are not anything like money. You can’t make them up later. Once you have spent it, you’ve lost it. You no longer have it. It is not a luxury to sleep and to get good rest. It is absolutely essential to living healthy now.
I used to be one of those who bragged about how little sleep I was running on. But I am no longer at that place. In fact, warning lights go off inside me when I get less than 8 hours of sleep or when I hear others talk about getting less than 8 hours of sleep. It’s not a sign of strength. It’s a sign of foolishness.
It might even be an indication that we think we are God.
It’s at least an indication that we don’t care about our minds and bodies. It indicates that we’d rather look strong to others than do what we need to do to be able to give our whole selves, fully present, to those around us, to our work, and to God.
Many of you reading this right now are likely already arguing with me in your heads just as I argued with people who talked about the importance of sleep. “You can make up sleep! Just get to bed earlier the next night. Take a morning and sleep in a little.”
My response to you is, first of all, how many times does that actually happen? Have you tracked the hours of sleep you get? I guarantee that when you get a short night of sleep and you go to bed early the next night thinking you’re “making up” for lost sleep you are actually just getting the amount of sleep you should get in a single night in the first place. You don’t make anything up.
Let’s turn this into a mathematical equation:
6 hours of sleep one night is 2 less than 8. Your total is -2.
9 hours of sleep the next night is only 1 more than 8. Your total is now -1. But in your mind, you probably feel like you made up for lost sleep. At least I often did.
What’s worse is that the next night is probably only 7.5 hours of sleep, continuing to build the deficit.
Secondly, science has shown us that going without sleep has profound impact on our minds and bodies. Sleep doesn’t run on credit. It’s a zero-sum game. Once it’s spent it’s gone. This means that we need to humbly pay attention to our limitations, acknowledge them, and take the time to rest and get sufficient sleep if we’re going to live whole and healthy livess.
3. Create Space in Your Rhythms to Do Things That Fill You or Give Your Rest
Another piece of life I’m learning about that is essential for wholeness is building space into my regular rhythms for doing things that either fill me with joy and energy or give me a deep sense of rest. You read the right: doing things that fill me with joy or provide deep rest.
So much of learning to rest and live with margin has to do with cutting things out. But I’ve discovered that there are activities to do that are also crucial for resting and providing joy.
When was the last time you set the cares of life aside and played a game or watched a good movie with your family? Did you notice the peace you felt as you decided in your heart, “I’m not going to try and get stuff done right now”?
Or when was the last time you cut loose from work early or got up early on the weekend to go hiking in the mountains and spot moose?
Now, I realize I’m listing things I personally find joy-filling and restful. My point is, though, that each of us need to find activities that fill us with joy or give us a deep sense of rest and then create space in our schedules to do it. Maybe it’s exercise, making music, playing sports, hanging out with good friends, cultivating fruit trees, reading. I think you get the point. This is part of learning to feel deeply and live fully alive to our senses.
When we work and minister until we’re shot, we gravitate toward activities that help us dissassociate, which can feel like rest. Only it’s not. Dissassociation is a coping mechanism, indicating we’re running on fumes. It’s not a sign of a whole and healthy life.
4. Live from a Posture of Trust
A final piece that I’m learning is essential for living as a whole and healthy human being is living every day in a posture of trust.
This health crisis forced me to acknowledge that I don’t know what’s going on and I don’t know what’s going to happen to me. Everything’s on the table and we simply have to trust God. It has nudged me to actively restructure life so my rhythms remind me that God is in control every single day, even when as my body heals and I’m not experiencing the level of crisis I was before.
It’s been about two months, now, that I’ve felt energy return in a way I did not have for most of the year. I still get wiped out easier than I did before, but I can pretty much do everything I want to again. However, I want to maintain and grow in that posture of trust. God’s got everything in control and I’m not going to panic if I’m surprised by something. In fact, I will be surprised by things. I will have plans that fail again. I will have things that completely reshape life. But I’m going to live in this posture of trust.
Conclusion
Reflecting on these fifteen lessons from my mysterious health crisis has been illuminating for me. Crises like this, although challenging, allow us to reset our lives, awakening us to new insights and provoking personal growth. Hopefully these lessons resonate with you and can provide perspective and practical takeaways for a whole and healthy life.
Join Unfeigned Christianity on Patreon and Read All 15 Lessons.
Become a paying member of Unfeigned Christianity for as little as $5/mo and access the full article on 15 Lessons I about Personal Wholeness I’ve Learned from a Mysterious Health Crisis, along with access to our community chat stream and quarterly Q&A episodes.
Already a member? Login
