"Working So Hard My Joy Wasn't There"

Those are words spoken by Tom Nelson, pastor of Denton Bible Church, in a Dallas Theological Seminary chapel address on his bout with depression.

He's very candid about it. He's very open about it. The cause of it. His workload. He had a schedule that I've never heard of anyone trying to keep. He was teaching. He was preaching. He was doing exactly what so many people strive for. And yet, he was destroying his body.

I share this video, and I really hope you'll take the time to watch it because I can look back over my last year or so and see where my body, my intellect, my emotions, my spiritual well being shut down because I tried to do it all. I tried to be the hero. I tried to be the Savior. And in so doing, I found out that "rest" is NOT a bad four letter word.

It's very easy to be prideful and want to take it all on and have the world or the success of an organization supposedly rest on your shoulders. The only problem with that, is that eventually you can't do it anymore and when you crash, you crash hard. I've seen it in a lot of friends (these types of people tend to befriend one another). When the crash happens, you get lazy, you get negative, you can't see the positive, you get angry, you get hurt, and you do and say things that you normally wouldn't do.

Is it because you are a bad person. Not at all. BUT, the stress of life can only be tolerated at maximum doses for so long before it all comes to a screeching halt. Listening to this message made that really clear.

It's 30 minutes long...You need to watch the whole thing. Especially if you're the type of person who doesn't think you have time to because you have other things you need to do.

(HT: Eddie Johnson)