The yellow “E” lit up on my dashboard and it suddenly dawned on me what I’d become.

I had become that person that completely drains their gas tank, knows approximately how long they can drive with no bars left and probably will keep pushing that limit, before getting gas.

How could this have happened to me?!

I was rushing to work, my travel plan suddenly altered by a desperate need to stop.

I don’t like to stop. And sometimes, I run myself ragged.

Strange to think how a concept God designed is now ignored.

Stillness, solitude, the absence of tasks or commitments—there’s something wrong if this occurs.

If I stop, will I start again? Sometimes I fear I won’t, and so, with consumption of more caffeine, I surge forward.

If we have time, great. Use it. Fill it.

And so by the end of the day, we lay down to sleep just as confused and directionless as when we woke up.

God never designed our bodies to go nonstop.

I’ve come to the realization now more than ever, in such a difficult age of life, that God purposely designed a need in us to recharge in him. How can we view our lives from the right perspective without spending time with the one who created it? As much as I would like to think of myself as intelligent, sometimes I’m a complete idiot. I try to fill my life with other things. I try to make it work, figure it out myself, when I know deep down I can’t and I never will. The bottom line is life doesn’t work without God.

I’ve been forced recently to slow down…way down. I fractured my foot trail running at the most inconvenient time possible. But, then again, injury and illness is never convenient. And, like most thorns in our lives, God intends to use it.

I’ve been forced, grudgingly, to spend more time still. As I type this, I’m sitting outside at a picnic table, listening to the wind rustle the late-summer leaves and car tires pound the pavement. Strange how something as simple as sitting outside can instantly lift my spirits.

Rest is never regretted.