2026.06.21 | I've Been Running on Empty for a While. Sunday Gave Me Something to Hold Onto.

I've been tired for a while now.

Not the kind of tired that a good night's sleep fixes. The kind that sits in your chest on Sunday morning when you're getting ready for church and you think - do I have anything left to give today?

I serve in kids ministry. I show up most Sundays at 8:15 to set up. I prep curriculum on Thursday nights after the kids are in bed. I send follow-up texts to parents during the week. I genuinely love it. And lately I've been doing all of it while quietly wondering if any of it is actually making a difference.

Nobody said anything was wrong. There was no big moment. Just a slow leak somewhere that I hadn't named yet.

Jeff preached Acts 18 on Father's Day and I wasn't expecting much. I came in tired and I sat down tired and I figured I'd take some notes and go home tired.

But he said something early on that I wrote down and haven't stopped thinking about.

He said Paul worked two jobs in Corinth - tent making and the word - for a year and a half. Not a quick trip. Not a highlight reel. A year and a half of showing up in the same city, doing the unglamorous work, staying when it would have been easier to leave.

And then God showed up. Not with a dramatic sign. With a quiet word in the night: don't be afraid. Go on speaking. Don't be silent. I am with you.

I needed that more than I knew.

Because the thing nobody tells you about serving consistently is that the silence gets loud. You don't get a lot of feedback in kids ministry. You prep and you show up and you love the kids and you go home and you do it again. And sometimes you wonder - does this matter? Does God even see this?

Acts 18 says yes.

Jeff also talked about Aquila and Priscilla - a couple who gave Paul a job when he arrived with nothing. They didn't preach. They made tents. And because they made tents, Paul could stay in Corinth long enough for a whole city to be changed by the gospel.

I'm not Paul. But I'm Aquila and Priscilla every Sunday morning when I show up at 8:15.

The other thing that helped was the one message section. Jeff said any biblically faithful pastor only has one message. Christ crucified. And I realized I'd been measuring my ministry by the wrong things - the energy in the room, the kids who seemed engaged, the parents who said thank you. All of that matters. But none of it is the point.

The point is the message. And the message doesn't need me to perform well for it to be true.

I'm still tired. But I went home Sunday with something I didn't have when I walked in. Not a solution. Just a reminder that God sees the unglamorous work, He's present in the quiet seasons, and the message I'm carrying is worth carrying even when I'm running low.

That's enough to keep going.

You can watch the full message from Pastor Jeff on our YouTube channel or through the Hope App.