Beating Fatigue in Long Seasons

Winter in cold climates can feel suffocating. The snow falls endlessly, tree limbs threaten to break at the weight of the season, and all signs of life go into hiding. You know the heaviness of hard seasons too. (Hello Covid a year later! plus all other life stressors) It’s easy to pile up years of hurt, rejection, and disappointment without clearing a path for joy. But that’s exactly the antidote you need when life’s too much. You need the warmth of joy to melt some of the cold, to beat fatigue.

I see you doing all the things. Packing endless lunches, zooming til your eyeballs turn red, trying to have that conversation YET AGAIN. There will always be struggle. But there will always be JOY. Even if you don’t feel it. Even if it seems lost. Joy cannot be lost. It’s held and given out in Jesus. You with me??

There will always be struggle. But there will always be JOY.

Andrea Chatelain

Israel’s King Solomon knew and wrote about a gamete of emotions in the book of Ecclesiastes. He experimented and documented thoughts of pleasures and toils, the highs and lows of life that are endlessly twisted together. In the end though, he said “I commend joy, for man has nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life…” Ecclesiastes 8:15 ESV.

We need joy, God-given joy, to go with us and hold onto us through the turmoil–COVID, career lows, family drama, motherhood. So how do we fight fatigue? We snuggle up to the source of Joy. Jesus himself keeps alive in us what the world’s weight tries to suffocate. As we walk through long days with God, treading on His sweet stepping stones of joy, life will melt into spring.

So diligently seek joy in the Lord even if it doesn’t make sense. Need ideas??

• Pray and ask God to renew in you a joyful Spirit (he knows how you’re feeling anyway).
• Set reminders on your phone to think of three things you’re thankful for.
• Spend 10 minutes a day in the Bible to set your thoughts on God’s goodness (if you don’t know where to start I recommend first5app or @shereadstruth).
• Go to lunch/coffee with a friend or CALL someone once a week to check in (You’re made for community).  
• Wake up and repeat “I EXPECT God to do GOOD things today because HE is good.”

Don’t let yourself grow cold and bitter. Instead warm yourself up next to Jesus. What struggles seem too much lately? What comfort, peace, and joy has God offered to help you through?

If you read this far that means we’re two peas in a pod. Jot your email down to GET this month’s from ME to YOU freebie…and so I can connect with you more! We’re in this together!

Andrea Chatelain’s mission is to meet women in their struggles and love them forward with God’s truth. She’s a Midwest mom of three, faith and family writer, and college English instructor to immigrants and refugees. She believes Jesus transforms lives when His people boldly seek Him. Her writing reflects her love for Jesus and heart for fellow believers.

Grow in faith with Andrea’s video Devotionals on Our Daily Bread! Or follow her on Facebook/Instagram.