Tired

The shift between idyllic and the city is one that I will never get used to.  It seems odd that we, self included, insist on pushing our individual agendas at a pace that guarantees we take sides, assume positions, and develop adversaries.  Even though I have been enjoying a life of leisure the past ten days, I find myself exhausted even before I fully rejoin the battle.  Nothing seems to have materially changed in my absence; perhaps things are a bit worse, they clearly are not getting better.
 
There is an option, available to everyone at the beginning of the day, to give in and up before the day really begins.  Right now I really want to take that option!  Toss in the towel, head back to the country to bag the competition and conflict.  Yet I can hear the call of hearts in need more clearly than at any time in my life.  There is an opportunity to make a difference.  There is a place for one to sit and be part of the solution.  There is a window that will close if one doesn’t take one’s place.
 
Perhaps there is even more to this story than I realize in the moment.  Is the fact that one’s adversaries are out in the open just a function of where one sits?  Even in Jesus time the casual observers were captured in a reporter’s journal.  “That's when some of the people of Jerusalem said, ‘Isn't this the one they were out to kill?’”  (John 7.25)  They knew everybody knew that there were competing ideas with life itself at stake.
 
I wonder if I realize just how many lives depend on my actions today.  Some of those at risk I know and others I have yet to meet or touch.  You have similar opportunities in your life and you may not even realize it!  The question of the moment is direct; will we engage or bow out due to our tiredness?  I am tired but not tired enough to let people go; God’s energy is available for all.