Depleted: use up the supply or resources of. Diminish in number or quantity. To drain, exhaust, impoverish, bankrupt
I sat there with the tv watching me mostly. I was half listening and half not. I just couldn’t answer one more question that day. My resources were at zero. I was depleted. The stresses of life just feel like they’ve increased the last few weeks. In some senses I felt angry. I found myself being constantly reminded that what I was being asked was not a direct indication that the person asking it was incapable of intelligent thought. Although I could see myself saying over and over, “Did you look for it? Have you tried before coming to me about this? Can’t you see I need a break today? But regardless of the look on my face the questions just keep coming. Even one of my besties at work noticed that I was different that day. She looked after me as she saw fit and I made it to the end of the work day without incident. That’s what friends are supposed to do.
In some ways its nice that I’m depended on for some things but in other ways I know that this is a failure. I should be teaching you to be self sufficient and not dependent on me for everything. I’m reminded of the woman in the bible with the jar of oil. The story is found in 2 Kings 4:1-7 but the summation of the story is that a woman’s husband has died and she is facing the fact that she will be losing her sons to slavery to pay residual debt that was left behind. I’m disturbed that this husband left her with nothing but more so that she was unable to figure out what to do. In those days, women were not business owners necessarily although we do find some examples here and there of women who earn money for their families but this woman was depleted of almost everything. Widows typically gleaned in the fields to take what was left over but were also taken care of too (Deuteronomy 10:18). She didn’t have food to make and sell or garments she could sew or anything. She had a small amount of oil. That’s what she had left. She had managed to keep the children and herself alive (we don’t know how long) but the point at which we are brought into the story we find this woman with practically nothing.
She asks for help from Elisha and his first question is “What shall I do for you? Tell me what do you have in the house?” Now I know Elisha knows this woman because she states that her husband was his servant. This tells me that Elisha knows he’s dead. In these times widows were to be taken care of by other families. Deuteronomy 14:29 We are still called to do this today but we’d rather let social security do it. So, when Elisha asks her these questions it kind of bothers me. But the questions he asks are important because he is showing her how to live on her own without her husband. The questions are to awaken the God in her. He makes her take an inventory to see what does she have. She essentially has nothing but in God’s eyes it is enough. She follows the prophet’s directions and is able to pay her debts and live off the rest. He didn’t leave her sitting there waiting for someone to take her children away. He invited her to use what she had.
We are enough. We have enough. We have to use even the small diminished amount we have. Use the gifts we are given to push forward and stop living depleted. When I feel this way I have stop and remind myself of what I do have. Stop and think. Stop and remember. Stop and know that God has a plan for you and me and it is to prosper. He has a hope and future for us. And I know in my heart of hearts that what I have is enough. Remember your source!
Just keeping it Cristaclear. Thanks for watching/listening/reading!
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Be inspired to inspire. Be encouraged to encourage. Up lift someone with the love of God.