The Middleton

To those who tried to tell me, thank you.

For years you all have petitioned that I take a break, citing that were I to maintain the exorbitant level of output that I have prided myself on giving to all undertakings, I would dramatically decrease by ability to be effective at all by decreasing the amount of time I have to be of any good. You tried to tell me for so long. Back to my undergraduate years, you were there, seeing my bloodshot eyes, telling me there was a better way. In my days at the ARISE Institute, you were there, cautioning me not to take on burdens that were not my own. And as I moved on to a meadow of miracles, there you were, holding signs of warning.

For years I have heard you, I have fought you, and I have denied your reality, but now I acknowledge your wisdom. It has taken much for me to "see the light," but the nail in the coffin came just this past weekend as I read the following from one of my favorite authors:

The misuse of our physical powers shortens the period of time in which our lives can be used for the glory of God. And it unfits us to accomplish the work God has given us to do...Those who thus shorten their lives and unfit themselves for service by disregarding nature's laws, are guilty of robbery toward God. And they are robbing their fellow men also. The opportunity of blessing others, the very work for which God sent them into the world, has by their own course of action been cut short. And they have unfitted themselves to do even that which in a briefer period of time they might have accomplished. The Lord holds us guilty when by our injurious habits we thus deprive the world of good. {Christ's Object Lessons 346.4}

The Christian life is not made up of unceasing activity, or of continual meditation....Christians must work earnestly for the salvation of the lost, and they must also take time for contemplation, for prayer, and the study of the word of God. It will not do to be always under the strain of the work and excitement, for in this way personal piety is neglected, and the powers of mind and body are injured.

Our God is ever merciful, full of compassion, and reasonable in all his requirements. He does not require that we shall pursue a course of action that will result in the loss of our health or the enfeeblement of our powers of mind. He would not have us work under a pressure and strain until exhaustion follows, and prostration of the nerves.

Though the harvest is great, and the laborers are few, nothing is gained by sacrificing health and life.
{Review and Herald, November 7, 1893}

Message understood, loud and clear. Change is on the way.