What replenishes your soul

As Bill Hybels continues Chapter 1 of Simplify, he surmises you’ve been empty so long, you’ve forgotten what replenishes your bucket, what replenishes your soul.  Pastor Hybels cautions, however, that before you can establish a plan for keeping your bucket filled, it’s vitally important that you understand why you’re so depleted in the first place.  For example, you may:

a.  be afraid to say no to your boss, spouse, or kids

b.  derive a disproportionate amount of your self-worth from overachievement

c.  feel guilty for spending time doing something for yourself when others are in such need

Choice C, the author notes, is backward thinking.  When you’re running on empty, you have absolutely nothing to offer others.  As Pastor Hybels observes:

“You can’t give what you don’t have.  Engaging in replenishment activities is . . . vital to the end goal of living your one and only life at its best.  Be unapologetic about it.  Prioritize and protect those replenishment streams in your life.”

Pastor Hybels states our natural human tendency is to start looking around for someone to pull us out.  He stresses with crystal clarity it’s our responsibility to fill our bucket and to keep our bucket filled.

Next, Pastor Hybels discusses five bucket-filling streams of replenishing energy that will take us from a depleted state to filled to the brim and overflowing.

Today’s question: During your desert, land between time, what replenishes your soul?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Connecting with God”

What replenishes your soul

The price of depletion

In Chapter 1 of Simplify, Bill Hybels tells of the time a few years ago when he felt so depleted for months that his wife and kids suggested he spend time at the family cottage in Michigan- alone.  God took the scales off Pastor Hybels’ eyes in a little grocery store in town when he realized he was more concerned about his timetable than assisting a wounded Vietnam War vet navigating the store in his wheelchair.

At that moment Bill realized the price of depletion.  He learned the hard way how important it is not to let oneself get completely run down.  Depletion not only harms the people around us, it damages the soul.  When we are toxically depleted, resentment and irritation can be dominant feelings.  We get scattered and lose our ability to focus, jumping from one distraction to the next, accomplishing little.

Pastor Hybels emphasizes the path to simplicity is a process requiring total honesty.  He asks us to recall a time when we were replenished and filled up.  As we strive to master the art of simplified living, those times of replenishment can become the norm rather than the exception.

The author concludes when we’re telling God what to do and we’re mad at the world, it may be time to hear God say:

“Let’s sit down together.  We’ve got some things to work out, you and Me.  You’ve lost a connection with Me somewhere.  You’ve lost your bearings on true north and now you’re just spinning.  But I have a better plan.”

Toda’s question: How have you experienced the price of depletion following your vocation loss?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “What replenishes your soul”

The price of depletion