• About a bible study on giving up •
[2 MIN READ]
In our club meeting series on emotions in the bible this semester, Nancy led us in a consideration of fatigue. Nancy taught high school biology for a bunch of years and she’s no slouch on the role of biology in the human condition. So, it pleased me that she didn’t trivialize the place of pathology as a factor in fatigue. (Note that I also have an undergraduate degree in biology like she does.) It can be easy to consider scripture at the expense of knowledge God has allowed human beings to gain as a collective. She made it clear that persistent fatigue might necessitate medical treatment. She, instead, leaned into the kind of fatigue that we can all experience, including Jesus, such as when he met the woman at the well in the Gospel of John (4:3-7 [Biblegateway.com]).
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Nancy had us spend 5 quiet minutes identifying and meditating on the kinds of fatiguing activity we often engage in personally that we need to seriously consider relinquishing. (TikTok, anyone?)
I identified a few in my life these days. Maybe I should be more ashamed that I promptly dismissed any desire to relinquish them. When she asked people to volunteer anything they felt compelled to give up, several students shared candidly and thoughtfully. I didn’t.
To be fair, the first activity I thought of was marathon training (Philadelphia, 11/23, Sunday). Fatiguing physical exertion builds endurance and strength. But marathons come and go. This fatigue is only for a season.
Another activity I thought of was scrolling YouTube Shorts; my version of TikTok. Thankfully, that is only an occasional activity, even if it might delay sleep for many minutes.
It pleases me that “we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin” (Hebrews 4:15). When we have accepted Jesus as our savior God, we have his spirit to help us overcome persistent disobedience, disobedience that keeps us from growing in God.
Father God, help us to claim and mobilize your power to reject behaviors that fatigue us incessantly and keep us from honoring you. Amen.
Read past posts, including one about how to know if you’re a real follower of Jesus and another challenging a cultural notion about moving into deep relationship.
FINE PRINT [CCOmmentary #11 for 2025’11’14’F] ¶Text: Calvin Wang (Wäng), CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
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