Simplify

though I made that commitment for the purpose of physical health, I have discovered that these activities also boost my mental health and energy reserves in a way that far exceeds the amount of time and investment they cost me.

have. Engaging in replenishment activities is not a form of selfish entertainment; it’s vital to the end goal of living your one and only life at its best. Be unapologetic about it. Prioritize and protect these replenishment streams in your life.

Simplified living is about more than doing less. It’s being who God called us to be.

Your heart and mine yearn for an antidote to all the drivenness and busyness in our lives. The antidote isn’t getting it all done in the kitchen—or the office, or the mall. The antidote is leaving that stuff—sometimes undone—to sit down for an unrushed conversation with Jesus.

prayerfully evaluate what truly matters. What are your needs, versus your wants? Begin praying that God will lead you to a vocation that brings the provision you need and also fills your bucket.

Would an honest conversation with Jesus, in an unrushed setting, help you, too?

When you’re at the bottom of your fullness bucket, you’re dangerous. Living this way has consequences for your marriage, your children, your team, and your colleagues at work. They know it, and you know it. You can feel it too. You’re in a rut, and it’s hard to get out of it. If you have spent too long at the bottom of your bucket, you’re not living the way God designed for you to live. He designed a better future for you.

Exercise and proper rest patterns give about a 20 percent energy increase in an average day, average week, average month.8

What sorts of things fill your bucket? What refuels you? What activities or engagements restore your energy levels? What do you need to do to start pouring new streams of replenishment into your badly depleted life? What relationships inspire you? What do you read that elevates your perspective? What in your life is actually a bucket-filler for you?

As a pastor and as a friend, it’s hard for me to say no to the many wonderful people I’d like to help and the many wonderful things I’d like to do around our church and around the world. But I have learned the hard way how important it is to not let myself get completely spent. I’ve already bottomed out once, and that was more than enough. Depletion harms the people around me, and it damages my soul.

When I feel God’s love, when the Holy Spirit is bubbling within my spirit, when I’m in conversations with Him throughout my day, hearing His whispers, trying to be present and responsive to Him—when I’m really in a dialed-in relationship with God—it’s the single most replenishing dynamic in my life.

If you choose to live with more energy reserves in your life, you will without a doubt disappoint some people. Trust me, you have to fight to keep your life replenished. No one else can keep your tank full. It’s up to you to protect your energy reserves and priorities.

Simplified living is about more than doing less. It’s being who God called us to be, with a wholehearted, single-minded focus. It’s walking away from innumerable lesser opportunities in favor of the few to which we’ve been called and for which we’ve been created. It’s a lifestyle that allows us, when our heads hit the pillow at night, to reflect with gratitude that our day was well invested and the varied responsibilities of our lives are in order.

Sometimes when we get depleted, we get scattered. We lose our ability to focus, and we jump from one distraction to the next with little to show for it. We confuse motion with progress.