The Good Kind of Tired

Back in January, I wrote a blog post about being tired and how to deal with it. That blog post was about the bad kind of tired. You know, when you’re not taking care of yourself as well as you should or you’re stressed out about something, and it’s just draining you. The kind of tired I was when I wrote that blog post. I still agree with everything I wrote in that post, but I recently realized that it didn’t really tell the whole story.

Lately, I’ve been tired. At the end of the day, I’m completely exhausted. I just don’t have any energy left. But it’s not because I’m stressed or not taking care of myself. It’s quite the opposite, actually. I’m less stressed and more healthy than I’ve been in a long time. This tiredness comes from something completely different, and I consider it to be a good thing. Today, I want to talk to you about what I call the good kind of tired.

At first, that probably sounds like a strange phrase. Isn’t being tired a bad thing? It can be, but it doesn’t have to be. Think about some of the best and most exciting times in your life. They were probably also some of the most tiring. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t get plenty of sleep and take care of ourselves, and I’m certainly not saying that having plenty of energy is bad. I’m just saying that being tired isn’t necessarily a bad thing in and of itself.

Like I said before, I’ve been tired lately. Not all the time. I start my days with a good deal of energy. I have enough energy to run in the mornings and start my work day off alert and prepared. But by the time I leave at 5:00, my energy level is basically zero. It’s not because I spend my day stressing out or pushing myself too hard. It’s because I spend my day doing something I love and putting everything I have into it. That is the good kind of tired.

To me, there are very few better feelings than the feeling of accomplishment I get after a long, hard day of doing the Lord’s work. When I know for a fact that I’ve put my all into what I’ve done, and I can be proud of it. I love the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual release I feel when I look back at the end of the day and say, “I’m happy with what I’ve done today.” In the words of a tweet I posted last week, “I am the best kind of exhausted.”

I like to think that each of us has something or even multiple somethings that make us feel this way. It could be a job, spending time with your loved ones, a particular sport, your relationship with Christ, or any other number of things. But we all have something that makes us feel alive. Something makes us feel more whole even as we put more of ourselves into it. Something that takes all that we have but ultimately makes us who we are. Something that makes us the good kind of tired.

If you have something like that in your life, enjoy it! And share it. I would love to hear about it. If you don’t, find it! God has made us all with different passions, and maybe you just haven’t found yours yet. I’m so thankful that I found mine at such an early age, and that I’ve stuck with it all these years. We all need something that makes us feel alive. Let’s enjoy those somethings today and thank God for them.