Are You Dangerously Tired?

A hard-to-recognize hazard for Christian leaders

I was really tired yesterday after work. I had some errands to run, some housework to do, a friend to see, but I couldn't bring myself to do any of it.

Instead I went straight home and decided to spend the night reading and relaxing, and going to bed early. That's what I needed to reenergize. I woke up early this morning and actually got most of those errands done before work.

I hear people say they're tired a lot. I say it too. This issue Ruth Haley Barton shares the difference between a "good tired" and a “dangerous tired.” Your ministry can be maximized by realizing why you're tired and how you can seek God to help you make changes if they're needed.

Because we do not rest we lose our way.
Poisoned by this hypnotic belief that good things come only through unceasing
determination and tireless effort, we can never truly rest.
And for want of rest our lives are in danger.
—Wayne Muller

There are at least two kinds of tired in this world.

One is what I call "good tired." This is the tiredness we experience after a job well done, a task accomplished out of the best of who we are. This is a temporary condition, and when it comes, we know that after an appropriate period of rest and recuperation we will soon be back in the swing of things.

But there is another kind of tired that is more ominous; it is what I call "dangerous tired." This condition is deeper and more serious than the temporary exhaustion that follows times of periodic intensity in our schedules and workloads. The difference between "good tired" and "dangerous tired" is like the difference between the atmospheric conditions that produce harmless spring rain clouds and those that result in the eerie green tint of the sky that portends the possibility of a tornado. When the sky is an angry green, something doesn't feel right and you know you had better pay attention. One atmospheric condition is normal and predictable; the other is risky and volatile.

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