When You're Tired

We all know the feeling. It’s the end of January, the holidays are over, and you’re trying to get back into the swing of things. If you’re in school, you’re probably already drowning in homework. And if you’re not in school, well, you’re probably drowning in something else. Sometimes, life gets tiring. That’s just the way it is. It happens to all of us, probably more often than we’d like to admit. Honestly, that’s where I’m at right now, and that’s why I decided to write this blog post. Here are a few tips I’ve found to help me when I’m feeling tired, physically and otherwise.

1. Breathe

I don’t know about you, but when I’m fatigued, it stresses me out. I try to rush to get everything on my to-do list done so that I can sleep, and I end up tiring myself out even more. Plus, my work is always sub-par when I’m tired and rushing myself. I get to the point where all I want to do is get the bare minimum out the way so that I can collapse. But when I get this way, I find that finishing that to-do list seems to get harder and harder. It’s a vicious cycle that I struggle to get out of.

But I’ve found a pretty simple solution to this: Just breathe. Take a second. Put everything away. Close your eyes and try to clear your mind. Take a few deep breathes. And then get back to whatever you’re doing. I’ve found that taking just a few seconds to breathe in the midst of all my stress and fatigue can do wonders. It gives me focus and energy to get through whatever it is I’m working on. Plus, it relieves some of the stress so that I can focus on the task at hand rather than on the pile of other things waiting for me when I finish this one.

2. Streamline

I think the number one cause of fatigue in my life is trying to spread myself too thin. I have a lot of things that I would like to do, like learning guitar and writing a book, but I can’t do everything at once. If I try, I get tired, and then I have trouble accomplishing anything at all. When you’re feeling tired, it may be a sign that it’s time to cut out some of the things in your life that are taking your energy but might not be worthwhile.

This will involve prioritizing. There are lots of good things out there for you to do and achieve. But you have to decide what’s most important in your life and build your goals around those core things. Maybe you enjoy playing tennis, but it’s keeping you from spending time with your family. There are only so many hours in the day, and trying to do both is exhausting, so it’s time to put the racquet up for a while until your schedule clears up a bit. There’s nothing wrong with trimming some things out of your life if you’re overwhelmed. In fact, you’ll find that in the long run, you’ll enjoy the things you do choose to do a lot more if you’re not spreading yourself too thin.

3. Pray

This one kind of goes along with breathing. When I give myself a really short break to just clear my head and breathe, I often say a short prayer. And it does wonders.

The truth is that we can’t do it all on our own. We’re not supposed to. It’s not the way we’re made. God made us with an innate need for communication with and reliance on Him. He wants us to come to Him when we’re feeling tired and stressed. He wants us to lay it all before Him and say, “I can’t do this on my own. I’m giving it to You. Do with it what You will because I can’t handle it.” When you’re honest with the Lord about how you’re feeling and you call on Him for help, He will come through for you, and you will feel so much better. In Matthew 11:28, Jesus tells us, “Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” We can find rest in our Savior if we just reach out to Him.

4. Rest

And that brings me to my last point: rest. This one is so important, and it’s one we often neglect, which is what leads to fatigue in the first place. When we have a lot on our plates, we often forget to take care of ourselves, and this has awful effects. And for me, at least, this gets worse when I’m tired. When things are good and I’m feeling fine, I’m usually pretty good about taking care of myself. But when I’m tired and stressed, making time for rest goes out the window. This is probably the worst thing I can do when I’m tired.

But how does one find rest in the midst of fatigue and stress? I think this is different for everyone. We all have an outlet that helps us relax and re-energize when we’re feeling tired. For some, it may be exercise. Other people people may rest by watching TV. For me, I’ve found the best ways of resting are spending time with my family and expressing myself through writing. I cannot put into words how energizing and relaxing these two activities are for me. Find your own way of resting, and make time for it on days you’re feeling tired.

These are just a few tips I have for when you’re tired. These aren’t full-proof or necessarily right for everyone. But this is what I’ve learned from my experience, and I do my best to incorporate these principles into my life when I feel like I’m letting myself get fatigued. I believe God desires for us to live healthy lives and to serve Him with clear minds. I hope these tips have been helpful, and if you have any others to add to the list, I’d love to hear them. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you guys on Friday for a special life update!

The Lord of the Rings

I somehow managed to make it to the age of 21 without watching The Lord of the Rings movies. I’m not proud of it, but that’s the truth. I can remember clearly the looks of shock and utter disappointment on people’s faces when I told them I hadn’t seen these films. But no more! I finally sat down over Christmas break and watched all three of them over a three-day period, and I must say I was impressed.

The Lord of the Rings is a fantasy film series based on novels by J. R. R. Tolkein. It tells the story of Frodo Baggins, a hobbit, and his experience with the One Ring, a powerful weapon that corrupts men and is being sought by the evil Sauron. Frodo is charged with the task of destroying the Ring before it falls into the wrong hands, but to do so, he and his friends must travel to the dangerous, far-away land of Mordor and resist the Ring’s corrupting power. Intriguing, right?

I consider myself a movie collector. For me, purchasing a movie isn’t just about getting it home so I can shove it in my Blu-ray player and watch it. It’s about the whole experience. The packaging, included materials, menus, and bonus features. It’s all important to me. And I can say with complete honesty that The Lord of the Rings set is one of the most gorgeous box sets I’ve ever seen.

The packaging is beautiful and sturdy, and it looks great on a shelf. Peter Jackson hired a documentary filmmaker to document the entire movie-making process, and those documentaries along with other featurettes were combined into The Appendices, Parts 1–6. Each of the three movies comes with two bonus discs containing two parts of The Appendices. Each movie also comes with a booklet with other information about the film. All of it comes together to form a wonderful, immersive experience that is sure to satisfy any LOTR fan.

But packaging and bonus features aside, the films themselves are incredible. I was skeptical at first. I thought, “How are they going to spread the story of a hobbit trying to destory a ring over three movies?” But by the end of The Fellowship of the Ring (the first film), I was hooked. You fall in love with the characters instantly, and the movies delve into their personalities and quirks in such a way that anyone can find at least one character to relate to. The story is so grand and spread out over the entire land of Middle Earth, but it’s cohesive and captivating at the same time.

The films are also deep. They deal with tough issues like environmental destruction and the corrupting nature of power in ways that are real and touching. LOTR entertains, but it doesn’t only do that. It’s a series that will make you think, and that’s a very good thing.

I really appreciated the fact that Peter Jackson put forth the time and effort to created extended versions of all three films. A casual viewer may only be willing to commit two hours to a movie, but some stories require more than two hours to tell completely, and Jackson recognized that hardcore fans would be happy to watch three-and-a-half hour versions of the films if they’re done right. And they are. These movies didn’t seem to drag on. In fact, I found myself wanting more.

And of course, we’re getting more. Peter Jackson returned to Middle Earth to create The Hobbit trilogy, a prequel to The Lord of the Rings, with the final installment set to release in December. I’ve seen the first one, and it’s on the same level as the original films. I’m very excited to watch the second Hobbit movie soon so that I can see the final one (most likely titled There and Back Again) when it premieres.

The Lord of the Rings is a great film series, and now is a good time to get into it. I would suggest watching the original trilogy and the first two Hobbit films before the final Hobbit film drops in December. And of course, it’s always a good idea to read the books, too. I recently purchased The Lord of the Rings book, so maybe I’ll do a write-up on it when I finish reading. That could take me a while, though, considering the fact that the book is nearly 1200 pages long. Thanks for reading my review of The Lord of the Rings films, guys, and I’ll see you Tuesday!

Accidental Education

Tomorrow, I will begin my final semester of my undergraduate career. It’s been a difficult, but rewarding, journey. As I was preparing for the final stretch in my quest for the coveted Bachelor’s degree, I decided to reflect back on the past three-and-a-half years of my life, and I realized something: I’ve actually learned a lot.

This may not come as a surprise to you. You’re probably thinking, “Of course you learned something! That’s what you went to college for.” But that’s honestly not the case. I didn’t enroll in college to learn. That wasn’t my goal at all. In fact, I hoped that I wouldn’t have to learn anything while I was there. When I started college, I thought I was there to get a degree. But what I got was so much better.

During my time at college, I have received—completely by accident—an education. I have a solid base of knowledge in a wide array of subjects that I never would have learned about had I not taken basic classes in them, which means I am capable of having an educated conversation with someone on many topics I never dreamed of. And I have received specialized training in two subjects (Religious Studies and Psychology) so that I can interact with professionals in those areas and hopefully someday contribute to them. I’ve learned an in-depth set of skills, vocabulary, and etiquette in these two area, and that’s something I never imagined I’d achieve.

I used to think college was just a set of hoops that you had to jump through, and once you jumped through enough of them, you got a degree. I’m not saying I was completely wrong about that. I’ve done a lot of hoop-jumping over the past few years. But those hoops aren’t just disconnected, mindless requirements with no end result. They’re a guide to what every good school should offer its students: a comprehensive education.

College isn’t all about just memorizing facts. It’s not all about learning what to think. A great deal of my education has been about learning how to think, and I can honestly say that my thought process and approach to problems is much different now than it was four years ago. Part of that probably has to do with maturity, but I’m sure that a lot of it can also be attributed to my education. College taught me how to look at things creatively, to ask the right questions, and to take a different approach when necessary. That’s something I never pictured myself learning when I started college.

I’m not pretending that I know it all. Undergraduate school has just been a step in what I hope will be a lifelong process of learning. But if college taught me anything, it’s that every situation is an opportunity to learn, and I’m going to end up learning new things whether I want to or not. I can honestly say now that I love learning. I love seeking out ways to gain knowledge and insight from people and situations in my life, sometimes even from the most unexpected sources. I’m very grateful for what I’ve learned so far, for what I’m going to learn this semester, and for the way that my time at Hendrix has prepared me for all the learning I have in store. It’s been a wild ride, but I couldn’t be happier with the result or more excited for what’s to come. Thank you to everyone who has supported me on my journey thus far and to everyone who is keeping up with me as I continue down this path. You guys are the best, and I couldn’t have done it without you. God bless, thank you for reading, and I’ll talk to you again soon!

The Bible: The Epic Miniseries

I remember hearing about The Bible when it first aired and getting very excited. I knew the History Channel had started making some really high-quality original content, and I heard a lot of hype about the miniseries. I really wanted to watch it, but the broadcast time was awful. 7:00 pm on a Sunday is not a good time to air something that’s directed toward a Christian crowd. Still, the show did really well and broke a lot of records on television as well as when it was released on DVD. I finally got the Blu-ray set for Christmas so I could see what all the fuss was about.

I think it’s important when analyzing The Bible to keep in mind what Roma Downey and Mark Burnett were trying to do with it. They were inspired to create The Bible after watching The Ten Commandments with their kids and realizing how dated it was. They wanted to make a cinematic version of the Bible that would appeal to modern audiences. They took the Bible at face value and tried to tell the stories in a compelling way in order to encourage Christians, bring wayward believers back into the fold, and expose people to the stories of the Bible who have never heard them before. I believe that, at least as far as these goals are concerned, The Bible was a huge success.

First off, the show is simply beautiful. It’s very obvious that this is a professional production with experienced actors, directors, producers, and the like. The Bible was shot in Morocco, and all the sets, costumes, and characters look stunning and realistic. The creators made great use of modern technologies like CGI to bring some of the larger-than-life aspects of the stories (such as Noah’s ark and the Jewish temple) to life, and it looks absolutely gorgeous. The Bible is cinematically on par with—if not above and beyond—anything else anyone is making right now, and that really helps broaden its appeal beyond just a Christian audience.

The Bible looks great and reached a lot of people, but is it accurate? At the opening of every episode, there is a message that says, “This program is an adaptation of Bible stories that changed our world. It endeavors to stay true to the spirit of the book.” I think the wording here is important. They are striving to stay true to “the spirit” of the Bible, not necessarily to the details. Good or bad, when a book is turned into a movie (or a miniseries), some things get changed. Some details are left out while others are emphasized, added, or rearranged. The producers involved several Bible scholars throughout the creation of the show to make sure they weren’t straying too far, and overall, I think The Bible succeeds in its goal of staying true to the spirit of the Bible. But I do have some concerns about a few of the changes that were made.

First of all, I’ll say that I appreciated their overall approach to the Bible. The show presents the Bible as a grand narrative. It is a cohesive story with major themes that builds to the coming of the Messiah, Jesus. The show’s creators went to great lengths to structure the show in the same way and to approach the Bible stories as historical facts. In this sense, it’s a great introduction to the overall story of the Bible for someone who doesn’t know much about it, and it’s a nice way for people who are familiar with the Bible to experience the stories in a refreshing way.

But the stories in The Bible are all slightly different from their book counterparts. As I said before, this is just a side effect of taking a book, even a sacred book, and trying to adapt it for the screen, and it’s not always a bad thing. I didn’t see anything in the show that was sacreligious or heretical. I did feel like some of the changes may have been deliberate, though, especially when it comes to Peter. I know Peter is a major character in the New Testament, but his role was emphasized even more in The Bible. Peter is portrayed as the first of Jesus’ disciples in the show, which is simply not how the story goes in the Bible. One of the very few direct quotes from the Bible in the whole miniseries is where Jesus tells Peter, “You are Peter, and on this rock I shall build My church.” I sensed a bit of a Catholic bias in all this, which makes sense because Roma Downey is a Roman Catholic herself. I don’t think the show creators were trying to misrepresent or misuse the Bible, and the good that the show has done certainly certainly outweighs any bad caused by indescrepencies between the Bible and the show, but some of the changes did give me reason for caution.

I think The Bible is a great series that is definitely worth watching. It’s basically a ten-hour highlight reel of the Bible that tells some of the major stories in a modern, compelling way. It brings the Bible stories to life in a way that I think would be a great encouragement to any Christian who watches it. It’s also a wonderful introduction for people unfamiliar with the Bible (and who may not be willing to actually read the Bible), and hopefully it will spark their interest in the book itself. That said, I hope that people who watch The Bible will also take the time to read the texts of the stories that they’re watching on the show. Ultimately, the show should always point back to the holy book that inspired it. I think the true impact of The Bible miniseries will lie in its ability to lead people to God’s word and the peace, love, and forgiveness that one can find through it.

The Bible miniseries aired on The History Channel in March 2013 and is now available on Blu-ray and DVD. A two-hour film called Son of God will be released in February telling the story of Jesus through footage and deleted scenes from The Bible miniseries. A follow-up miniseries titled A.D., centered around the lives of the disciples after Jesus’ ascension, has been greenlit by NBC and will air in Spring 2015.

Grownups Need Directions, Too

When I was a kid, my mom never used a GPS. She didn’t have one. But more importantly, she didn’t need one, at least not in my eyes. She always seemed to be able to get us exactly where we were going with no problems, even if we were going somewhere she had never been before. I had no idea how to get anywhere, partially because I was kid and partially because I have no sense of direction whatsoever, so this astounded me. I came to the conclusion that all adults had some sort of secret special ability to find their way around places, and I assumed that I would someday develop this skill, too.

Boy, was I wrong. I am now 21 years old, and I can’t navigate anywhere without directions. I get lost just trying to drive around Fort Smith, a city I’ve lived just outside of for nearly 15 years. If the ability to navigate new areas is a skill all adults are supposed to have, then I must have missed out on that one somewhere along the way.

Not that I consider myself completely “grown up” just yet. I’m still pretty young, and I’ve got a lot more growing up to do. But I’m certainly not a kid, and I’m starting to slowly get an idea of what it’s like to be an adult. And one thing that I’ve found out is that, contrary to what most kids think, adults don’t have it all figured out. They question things, too. They still wonder about who they are and where they belong in life. They’re still growing and changing and learning and experiencing new things, too. And, yes, sometimes adults get lost.

I think this became most clear to me one night last summer. I was at a church event at a park, and I was babysitting my nephew Aiden. My mom was coming by to pick him up, and she called me to ask how to get to where I was. Whoa. My mom, the one who drove me around for years, the one I thought knew how to get everywhere, was asking me for directions? No way.

OK, maybe it wasn’t that dramatic, but you get my point. It was then that I realized my mom didn’t know how to get everywhere without directions. In fact, she has a GPS installed in her car now, and she uses it on a regular basis. Because it’s OK to need a little direction every once in a while. It’s OK not to have it all figured out. Each of us is on a journey, and that journey doesn’t end when you become an adult. My journey is just beginning, and I can’t wait to see what lies ahead. Some days I may feel like a lost little kid without a map, but that’s alright. I’ll find my way. Sometimes, grownups need directions, too.