Tired or Less So

by Josh Porter

Begin with prayer and conversation

Gather together as a Community in a comfortable setting. Have somebody lead a prayer asking the Holy Spirit to lead and guide your time together. Spend a few minutes going around the room, catching up on life. (Most of this practice is dialogue with one another, so keep the life updates brief.)

Read this overview 

All disciples of Jesus, whether they’ve been following Jesus for one several years or several decades, get tired. The road of apprenticeship opens up before us and is, from one angle, full of promise and hope, and from another, very long and entirely uphill.

Feeling worn down—feeling tired—isn’t necessarily indicative of any sin or defect in us, but an unfortunately ordinary dimension of following Jesus in a broken world. This is yet another reason why following Jesus is always and only done in the support and accountability of community.

Do this practice together as a community

Go around the group giving each member of your community to describe where they are in their discipleship journey. Do you feel energized, full of hope, ready to receive what God has for you in this season of your life and stage of your apprenticeship? Or do you feel tired? Aimless? Worn down and in want of grace and a fresh filling from God’s Spirit?

Remember, both there’s a spectrum to both dispositions. Feeling tired doesn’t always mean you’re in the depths of despair, it could just mean you’re in want of God’s grace to follow Jesus well, to put one foot in front of the other. Similarly, feeling full of hope does not mean you’re a perfect super Christian. It just means you have feel empowered by hope and faith to follow Jesus well.

After everyone has shared, spend a few minutes in listening prayer. After you’ve made space to hear from God’s Spirit, have those who feel less tired pray over those who are currently discouraged. If your group has much more of one group than the other, that’s fine. Pray for one another anyway, regardless of disposition.

Close in a prayer of thanksgiving