I’ve been running on empty more than I’d like to admit lately.
Nobody tells you how much actual energy it takes to keep showing up for the things you care about. I always thought the hard part was just saying yes—leaving the old thing, stepping into the new one. And yeah, that’s hard. But there’s this other kind of hard nobody warned me about: just having enough in the tank to keep showing up for it, day after day.
Ministry isn’t only a spiritual thing. It’s early mornings, long drives, and hard conversations, showing up when I’d honestly rather not. And I’ve realized wanting to do it isn’t enough on its own—I actually need the energy to do it. A body that can keep up with what my heart already said yes to.
For me, that’s come down to three pretty unglamorous things: eating real food most of the time, moving my body daily, and actually protecting my sleep instead of sacrificing it first when life gets full.
Here’s what’s really been on my mind lately, though: this isn’t just about getting through today. It’s about still being able to show up ten years from now. Twenty. I’ve watched people pour themselves out for a season and burn out completely—not because their hearts weren’t willing, but because nobody was minding the body doing all that pouring. I don’t want that to be my story.
I want to be doing this when I’m “old.” I want to still have something to give years down the road. And if I’m honest, that kind of longevity doesn’t happen by accident. It’s not just prayed into existence—it’s built, meal by meal, walk by walk, night of actual sleep by night of actual sleep. The small, boring choices now are what let me still be standing later.
There’s this verse in Isaiah that says people who wait on the Lord will run and not grow weary. I used to read that as just a nice promise for a hard day. Now I read it more like a promise for a whole life—that the way you keep running for decades, not just sprinting for a season, is by actually letting your strength get renewed instead of running on empty and calling it faith.
I want to be able to do this for as many years as God will let me. Not just show up strong for a moment and then disappear. So lately, taking care of my health hasn’t felt like some extra thing I squeeze in around ministry—it’s the thing that determines whether I’m still around to do ministry at all in the years ahead.
Nothing fancy here today. Just something I’ve been chewing on: taking care of myself now is how I stay faithful for the long haul, not just the next hard week. Not perfect. Just enough to still be here, still saying yes, a long time from now.