What’s In The Tank?

  This last week, I won’t lie has been tough. It’s been a lot of hard conversations. It’s been things that have made me tear up thinking about. It’s just been hard. But one thing that I can say in that same breath, is that those same moments have lead to incredible growth. They have let me grow in such a way that I feel like having hard conversations or even tough things to face head on, they can be seen as ways to learn.

  Over the last weekend, I was hanging with my girlfriend and my family watching the Bears game. Well actually, I was sitting in my garage with my girlfriend and we were talking about the week. We were just bringing up some simple things that made us happy and she said to me, “right now I just feel like my ‘happy tank’ is full”. 

  Well it got me to thinking about what is in my tank. What keeps me recharged and feeling like I can keep going? What keeps me smiling, or what pulls me out of a rut I’m in? Or not even just about me, but what fills your tank? 

  So I wanted to talk about this and dive into just what exactly fills me up. But first I’ll start with speaking into a truth about the biggest truth that can fill everyones’ needs. That will fill up everyones’ tank if we live for him...

Romans 15:13 “May the God of hope fill you with all the joy and peace in believing, so that by the power off the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”

Christ wants to fill us. Christ is going to fill us with the love, peace, joy, if we just believe in Him. He is going to give us everything and more, it says in Psalm 23 that our cups (our life) will overflow! Another truth I want to say about filling a tank, and the beauty of my tank or your tank is that Christ will never let our tank empty. We will never get to that point. No matter how many times we are brought to tears, or brought to our knees. No matter how many times we feel like we are starting over. He won’t ever let us go. He won’t ever stop trying to fill us up no matter what is going on in our life. He is there, he is trying to fill us up.

 I don’t know about you but I would love for my tank to feel like it’s overflowing. I would love for the days that are hard, for the days that just seem like they are never going to end. I would love for those days to feel easier if I could just remember the days where I feel like I’m overflowing. But why is it like that? Why do I feel like on those hard days, I get so drained? Is it because I’m just overthinking things...is it because I’m trying to ‘take matters into my own hands’...is it because I’m not believing in the one who can make my heart joyful and peaceful...

  How do we do this? How do we go from feeling all of these things that are hard to feeling over flowed. Well I will tell you how. We surround ourselves with things that bring those joys and those moments of peace. I know it sounds simple and almost too good to be true. But here’s an example. For my family, we love having our alone time. We have different schedules and we are always seeming to be doing something at any given time. But there’s nothing that makes me feel closer to my family than a family dinner. Time around the table, the conversations and time to be with one another fills me up. It brings joy to my life. Another example from someone else is my girlfriend. She LOVES the outside. She LOVES the sunshine. And we’ve had some days recently with some rain, and being cloudy and cold. Well to fill her up, we went outside and opened the garage on a beautiful Sunday afternoon to watch the Bears outside and just enjoy the rays of sunshine. That brought joy. That filled a tank.

  Filling our tank isn’t this complicated process. These are simple things. Quieting the noise going on around us in our life, and just trying to still ourselves. It’s in those moments of stillness that we can breathe, we can feel God working in us to fill us up. Think about this because I know I’ve done it! Have you ever walked outside on a beautiful sunny day and just stop. Raise your arms up, and take a deep breath (almost a sigh) to just smile... I know I have! 

  You quieted yourself to take in a moment. Moments for me that let me get this same feeling are journaling (or blogging), I love to go for walks outside or workout, I love to go hit (yes it’s baseball but it’s almost therapeutic to me), I love spending time with my girlfriend, my friends, or my family. I love even just being alone sometimes to be quiet and not do anything. Those are just a few of the things I love to go do that fill me up. And you know what, it’s in those moments of stillness or moments of being with someone or doing something with people that I can feel my cup overflowing. I feel God working in me to say, I don’t need to do this alone. He is going to fill Himself in me so much that my cup is overflowing with Him and his presence in my life. 

  So my challenge to those who read this is to think about what’s in your tank? What do you have in the tank right now, and what could help fill it? Is it a moment you need to take away from that “important” thing you’re doing and just take a walk around the block? Is it actually unplugging from your phone, and going to hangout with the people you text all the time to have some real conversations? Or the opposite and maybe you need to take a break from going out all the time, and need to find stillness in just being by yourself? 

  How can you fill your tank? Whatever it is...I hope you remember that it’s in those moments of you filling your tank, Christ doesn’t just want to fill it. He will overflow it.