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Episode Summary:

Ever had one of those weeks where you’re just completely drained—physically, mentally, emotionally—but life still expects you to show up? That’s exactly what we’re diving into today. In this short but powerful episode, I’m sharing my personal experience from this past week: navigating exhaustion, sickness, and the battle between resting when you need to and pushing through when you must.

If you’ve ever wrestled with guilt for taking a break or felt the pressure to keep going even when you’re running on empty, this episode is for you. We’ll talk about the importance of discernment, why rest isn’t laziness, and how God provides the strength we need when we simply don’t have it on our own.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

🖤 The difference between needing to rest and needing to push through
🖤 How to silence negative self-talk when you feel “lazy”
🖤 Why your worth isn’t tied to how much you produce
🖤 Trusting that God will supply the strength you need when it’s time to show up

Key Scripture:

✨ “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” – Philippians 4:13

Let’s Connect!

📲 Instagram: @erseaberg
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Listen in and be encouraged—because whether it’s a day to rest or a day to push through, God’s got you. 🖤

Transcript:

Hi, I'm Erin Seaberg, and welcome to You've Been Called Out, the podcast for Christian women in their entrepreneur era.

Today, we're going to chat about something that I think is a challenge for all of us, which is showing up when we don't really have anything left, or we feel like we don't have anything left to offer.

And we're still expected to show up in our businesses, in our marriages, in our homes, you know, in ministry, all these different areas of our lives, where we are expected to show up, even when we have nothing left.

So I just want to take a few minutes.

It's going to be a short little episode today, but just to provide some encouragement for you, as always, that's always my goal, is that you walk away encouraged in your spirit.

And so I just want to share a little bit about my week and why this topic I felt like was really important to talk about today.

So February 1st, my husband and I started working on some of those goals that I talked about a couple weeks ago, some lifestyle changes, all those different kinds of things.

And we were really excited, kind of hit the ground running.

And then it was kind of one thing after another, I was dealing with some different, like weird little health issues.

And then I got food poisoning.

So yesterday, I was down for the count, woke up at 2.30 in the morning, and it was one of those like, I don't need to go to the hospital, right?

Like, I really, I don't think I need to go to the hospital, but also I may be dying, but no, I definitely don't need, I don't need to go to the hospital.

No, no, no, I'm gonna be fine.

You know, and you're just like back and forth, and you're like, it's fine, everything's fine.

Like, you're just like praying, like, you know, hanging on by a thread.

So yesterday, I was just so out of it all day, and I think there's really two components to think through.

One is showing up when you don't feel like it.

The other side is resting when you need to.

So I was totally down for the count all day.

My husband ended up working a half day and spending the day with me and making sure that I ate and drank water and everything.

You know, we were super worried about like dehydration and stuff like that.

You know, he just, he made sure that I had what I needed, and I just rested, and it was really, really difficult for me throughout the day to fight the, oh, you're just being lazy.

Oh, you're, you know, this is just an excuse to be unproductive, or, you know, you really wanted to rest.

Now you got your rest day.

Sometimes we kind of like bully ourselves and we'll be like super negative, you know, have like a lot of negative self-talk and be like, well, I'm just being super lazy right now.

And, you know, all that kind of stuff.

And it's like your body is telling you that you need something.

Like in my case, it needed me to not move.

Because I was not doing well, I was definitely getting dehydrated and like I wasn't eating anything.

Like my body was lacking the things that it needed to function.

And if I demanded that it do something creative or productive, I was only going to make it worse.

Like that was not that was not going to be honoring my body.

And it was not going to be helpful for anyone.

I was like, well, maybe I should create some content or whatever.

And then I'm like, what kind of quality content am I going to be able to produce in this current state?

Like that's just not that's just not reality to just crank something out when you are miserable like that.

On the flip side, yesterday, I rested, thankfully, last night, I got a solid night's sleep.

That was such a blessing from the Lord, my best friend and I were both praying for that.

And I woke up so grateful that I had slept straight through the night.

And while I'm still tired today, I know that I was able to give my body the rest that it needed yesterday and last night.

Then today, I really was just kind of operating from a place of recovery, you know, just trying to catch up all the things that kind of piled up from yesterday that I didn't get a chance to do.

And then the things that I wanted to accomplish, the things that I knew needed to get done.

And then also just dealing with, you know, the first day like eating normal food again.

And, you know, making sure I was getting rehydrated, all that kind of stuff.

When it came to recording the podcast tonight and putting out content today, I just was really not feeling it because it had been a day of just trying to play catch up.

And my mind was all over the place because I was still tired and still kind of out of it.

And well, the reality is you don't just like snap out of it, like you're back to like normal the next day after you deal with something like that.

Like it disrupts you for a while.

Like it takes a couple of days.

They, I forget what the stats are, but like one bad night worth of sleep, like really actually disrupts your sleep for like a whole week or like throws you off, you know, like energy wise for like a whole week, which is just bizarre and really annoying, but reality nonetheless.

So I was basically operating from like a, you know, 50% to 75% functioning today.

And I still had to show up.

I still had to show up and get stuff done.

Yesterday, I had to rest.

There was nothing that I could produce or create that was going to be successful or valuable because I literally had nothing to give.

Today, I was tired.

I was kind of out of it, but the work still needed to be done.

And I think really, I feel like I've kind of been rambling, but I think that the main focus needs to be using our discernment to figure out when we need to rest and when we need to push through.

And it's really such an individual thing.

It really needs to be handled on a case by case basis.

But there are moments where you need to just stop with the guilt.

You need to stop calling yourself lazy.

You need to stop trying to produce something as if it defines your value.

You have to stop doing that.

And then there's other moments where you're a little tired, you're a little out of it, you're a little cranky, you're whatever, and you still have to show up.

You still have to show up for your business.

You still have to show up for your family.

You still have to clean your house.

You still have to walk your dog, whatever it is.

You still have to show up.

So my encouragement to you today is to, one, be a little bit more gracious with yourself because sometimes you really do need to rest, and two, in those times when you need to push through, remember that the Lord will give you everything that you need to accomplish what you need to accomplish.

And so right now, I'm recording this podcast episode.

And like I said, I'm tired.

I am still kind of out of it.

There were a lot of things that I had to get done today.

There were also moments where I just allowed myself to just sit and think about nothing because my brain was cooked.

You know, I didn't check out from all of reality like I did yesterday, but I gave myself a few minutes.

You know, I let myself breathe a little bit.

So allow yourself moments to rest and then get back to work and trust that the Lord is going to supply all of your needs and He's going to make it happen.

And all you have to do is rely on Him for strength.

And I actually saw something this week that I thought was really cool.

There was a post that was like on Instagram where the guy was talking about how, you know, we say, Philippians 4.13, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength is like not what we think it is.

Like we're like, yes, that means like I can climb mountains and I can build businesses and whatever.

Like I can accomplish all these things because I have God.

And he was like, no, like it was Paul coming from a place of like less than nothing.

Like I have nothing.

And in my nothingness, I'm going to further reduce myself so that Christ can be glorified through me and through the things that he does that on my own would be totally impossible.

But with him, those things are possible.

I can do all things through Christ alone.

So if I can leave you with any encouragement, it's one, rest when you need to rest.

Your body will let you know, and it will be very obvious, and get rid of the guilt, and just let yourself rest.

And then two, when you are actually capable of functioning again, get to work and rely on the Lord to pull you through.

Because in your emptiness and in your lacking, he can do amazing work through you.

So present yourself as a living sacrifice to the Lord, and let him do his work through you.

And finally, if the Lord is doing an amazing thing in your business right now, I as always want to hear about it.

I'm so excited to start having people on this show, hopefully in the very near future, to talk about their businesses and what the Lord is doing.

And so I would absolutely love to have you on here.

If you want to submit your story, there is a little questionnaire that you can fill out the link in the show notes, or you can always DM me on Instagram at erseaberg.

But either way, I cannot wait to hear from you and to connect with you, and I'll talk to you soon.