By: Kenzie Deneault, Hume Lake Guest Group Coordinator
I have never met a person who, when I ask how they are doing, at one point, their answer isn’t “busy.” What an interesting word, busy. When someone uses that word, it can mean one hundred different kinds of “busy.” One thing that seems to be consistent though is that whenever someone says “I’m busy” in response to the question “how are you?” there is a level of exhaustion behind their answer.
When life is hard, it’s usually because we are walking through a difficult season, a “valley,” if you will. When things are purely hard, we tend to more easily turn our thoughts to the Lord and rely on His strength to get us through the rough period. But what about when life isn’t hard, it’s just busy? In my own heart, I have discovered that for some reason, when I am busy, I don’t turn to the Lord for guidance and strength nearly as quickly. It’s almost as if I have decided that busy shouldn’t be the same thing as hard, and therefore it isn’t deserving of the Lord’s attention. I think most of us would even say that if we are busy, it’s probably for good reasons – we got that new promotion and are just needing to learn to handle the new responsibilities, or perhaps you’re in a season with children and your entire life seems to revolve around the constant need to take them somewhere (whether it’s school, extracurriculars, youth group or church, etc), or maybe you have a vibrantly full social life that is demanding of your time. Whatever “busy” means for each of us, it is so easy to get in the groove of just doing all the things, that before we know it, when we answer “busy” it’s with a tinge of panic in our voices.
My husband and I have found ourselves in a busy season where we work our wonderful jobs at Hume but then come home and find that work doesn’t stop when we clock out. I have a side gig that demands a lot of my attention when I get home, friends and family that matter to both of us deeply, which means we sacrifice (very willingly) much of our time toward maintaining these relationships, a list of chores that only grows and doesn’t shrink, a sibling’s wedding, and two new nieces and nephews we are helping prepare for on top of the joyous news of our own little one who will be joining us this fall. It’s a beautiful, wonderful season of life. And it’s exhausting.
As I sat with the Lord, complaining about how tired I was in every way this past month, I felt the Spirit remind me that I keep complaining and not asking for help. This took me aback for a moment – I could ask for help? Really? But it’s all good things that are happening! Doesn’t that disqualify this as something I can ask for help in? And I was reassured that it does not. While there aren’t things I can take off my plate in this season, I am still welcomed before the throne to ask for the help I need to live out my calling to this ministry, my role as a wife, my job as a friend, and the list goes on. And on top of that, I was reminded (probably for the hundred thousandth time) that apart from the Lord, I can do nothing. Nothing! Not the big stuff, and not the small, day-to-day stuff either. Without the Lord, I am nothing. I have nothing. With Him, He gives me my daily bread – just what I need to get through each day – and I never have to face my life and the demands on my time alone.
If you are in a season where life is constant, where you feel like you’re doing all good things but can never catch your breath, can I encourage you to give that to the Lord? If you are living in His will, doing the things you know you’ve been called to but finding yourself at your wits end each day, you are probably exactly where the Lord wants you. When we invite Him into our daily lives, our daily mess, and rely on Him for that daily bread, we will find ourselves thinking on our wonderful Savior more and more each day. Of course, we are to run to Him in the hard times and praise Him in seasons both good and bad, but there is a deep and abiding fellowship to be found with our Maker when we ask Him into our daily business. For when we are weak, He is strong. When we allow ourselves to diminish, Christ is on display, and that is the very goal of our lives.
Kenzie has lived and worked at Hume off and on her entire life and studied Christian Leadership and Camp Ministries in college. She loves this ministry and enjoys getting to live at Hume with her husband, and with her parents living right down the street from them.
