Grumpy tired busy.
First, I am so excited that I’ve shared this blog with some friends and the response has been so kind and gracious. Thank you all, your encouraging words and feedback have been confirmation to me that the Lord is at work. Praise his name!
Ok, on to the title of this post. A little background, I have a notes app on my phone and one ongoing note-to-self contains random ideas that come to me of which I may write about later. Just a bit ago I took a look at that list, and saw I had written this:
Grumpy tired busy.
Just like that, not even a comma!
I had to think about why I wrote that or where it came from. Well, I’m still thinking… but my guess is that I heard it someone else say it and dashed a quick note to myself with the thought that I would remember what it meant later. Ha-ha! That’s the equivalent of walking into a room and not remembering why you went in there in the first place! I digress. No matter what my original intent was, it’s not too far of a leap to conclude that maybe those were the best three adjectives to describe my mood that day!
Several years back I wrote a guest post for a friend’s blog, and the topic was on being busy. That was a season of life in which I was working full-time, back in school getting my bachelor’s degree and my 2 girls were still little. That might be the actual definition of busy!
Yet today, I still feel as busy as ever and it seems the same for most of the world at large. I’ve also learned that when Busy pulls up to the house, he usually brings Tired with him, and if Tired wipes his feet on the mat and steps inside, guess who’s bringing up the rear? That’s right, Grumpy. Let’s call them GT&B for short.
One of my main goals in starting to write again was to be an encouragement to other women, especially you friends who have those three GT&B chuckle heads sitting on the couch right now, eating all your snacks, watching the TV way too loudly and just won’t leave! (By the way, I think these three amigos might be teenagers!) I digress again (D2, if you’re keeping track).
The best way I can think to encourage other women is through my honesty. Being honest that I in no way have it all together and that’s ok because I’m not the one who’s keeping me together, God is! I want to be honest about my fails and struggles because I know I breathe a sigh of relief when I hear other Christian friends admit their own shortcomings, frustrations and failures. Not because I want to feel superior to them, and not to celebrate the downfall of others, but because a weight is lifted when we can smile back and whisper…. me too.
So, in keeping with this theme, here are my versions of GT&B, and what God’s got to say about it.
Grumpy
Boy am I grumpy more times than I care to admit. And sometimes, when Grumpy’s been eating his Wheaties (of course he helped himself from the pantry) he actually becomes Angry. Yuck, too often I’ve been the angry mom who snaps at everyone when the house is a mess, and the kids aren’t listening. Yet, here’s the good news, God’s working on me in this area as I continue to give it to him. And when we get Grumpy to stop chewing so loudly, we can listen and hear Him whisper….
My strength is made perfect in your weakness. (2 Cor. 12:9)
Tired
Let’s not even get started on Tired. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who stays up too late at night sacrificing sleep because that’s pretty much your only “me time”. Ahem – says she who is typing this at almost 10pm. I don’t have a fix for this, just a hand raised along with yours saying I get it. I’ve got Tired here tucked up at the foot of the bed between the dog and the cat dreaming about tomorrow morning’s large iced americano we’ll be grabbing at like a toddler does a sippy cup from the kid at the drive-thru window (friends, you know which one). But in the morning, before the golden caffeine ever touches my lips, I will have taken time to lay my big fat Tired at His feet and ask Him to turn it into His rest. (It just occurred to me that the phrase golden caffeine sounds a little too close to a certain idol some dumb Israelites fashioned out of a bunch of old jewelry because they got impatient and antsy… umm sorry D3).
In the book of Jeremiah, Chapter’s 30 and 31 are all about the promises God will bestow upon Israel in the future. While these verses were originally meant to be heard by the Israelites, these verses can be so comforting to cling to today when we’re feeling GTB-ish.
I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint. (Jer. 31:25)
Busy
As I mentioned, there are things that keep us busy that can’t be helped, but it’s living in the attitude of busy that pulls our eyes off of Jesus. This next confession is holding hands with our dear friend Tired:
I’ve had those moments where my plan was to wake up early and take that extra time to read my bible and pray. (Oh, you too?) But Tired wanted me to stay up half the night watching cat videos on the internet (seriously it was him, not me) so I end up hitting the snooze button an embarrassing number of times instead. Then find that Grumpy joined me in sweetly enduring all the wonderful drivers in morning traffic, finally making it to work, running around there, and by the time I get home and collapse, it is time to rinse and repeat.
And now that I think of it, my guess is that I wrote those three words in my phone because it’s just how we can all feel when we let Busy keep us running on the hamster wheel of life which leaves us feeling more like Tired’s big brother Exhausted, which makes us accidentally leave the back door unlocked so Grumpy sneaks in and throws a party inviting Angry and Resentful and Depressed and fill in the blank with how you’re feeling right now________ (I’ll wait).
I’ve already mentioned that I don’t intend to give you advice on how to fix these challenges in life, how can I when I’m pretty sure GT&B are upstairs watching Netflix right now? Yet there is a fix available, and Jesus offers it to whomever will take him up on it. Now that fix might not look like immediately bestowing upon you a tropical vacation with unlimited massages (ahh if only). But when we trust that he wants good things for us, and that his word is true, we can keep asking for him to give us the antidote of calm to our grumpy, rest to our tired and peace for our busy. I say keep asking not because God needs to keep trying, but because we usually need that daily reminder to ask for his grace and help so that GT&B don’t completely take over. I am picturing it sort of like Jesus yanking the chip bag and the Big Gulps out of GT&B’s hands and escorting them out the door by the scruff of their necks!
I wanted to elaborate a bit on my mention of trusting that he wants good things for us. One of the most comforting passages of scripture to me is this portion of the Sermon on the Mount:
Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! (Matthew 7: 9-11)
I take this as God’s way of saying “Umm hello? I’m going to take care of you. Just trust me”.
So, feeling grumpy? Trust.
Feeling oh so dang tired? Just trust.
Feeling like the busyness will never end? Trust, trust, trust.
And Lord, let me believe it too.