“The main purpose of life is to live rightly, think rightly, act rightly. The soul must languish when we give all our thought to the body.”― Mahatma Gandi
A 2020 international study with participants from 78 different countries between April and June 2020, found that 10% of people around the world experienced languishing during the pandemic. What is LANGUISHING? It’s defined as a living thing losing or lacking vitality, growing weak or feeble, failing to make progress or be successful; pining with love or grief; displaying sentimentality or melancholy, or suffering from being forced to remain in an unpleasant place or situation. Given those definitions, that number could easily be more than 10% these days. I’ve felt several of those things during the past two years, how about you? Languishing is a middle category between flourishing or thriving and depression. Been losing energy and feeling… blahs? that’s languishing.
This is not the first season in our history where we’ve languished. We’ve survived the Spanish Flu and other pandemics, World Wars, economic downturns like the Great Depression, 70’s inflation, and the housing crisis of 2008. We’ve experienced feeling as if we were just treading water, not advancing. Languishing happens to individuals and entire societies. There is nothing new under the sun.
Jeremiah wrote these words during a time of drought, famine, sword, and pestilence,” Judah mourns, her cities languish; they wail for the land, and a cry goes up from Jerusalem. The nobles send their servants for water; they go to the cisterns but find no water. They return with their jars unfilled; dismayed and despairing, they cover their heads. The ground is cracked because there is no rain in the land; the farmers are dismayed and cover their heads.” Israel, in that very hard time, understood they were under God’s judgment. They needed to repent and return to Him and hope for His intervention. Jeremiah records them crying out to the only One who could rescue them, “Although our sins testify against us, do something, LORD, for the sake of your name. For we have often rebelled; we have sinned against you.” (Jeremiah 14:2-7) I wonder if we as Christ-followers are crying out to God now—or if we’ve acquiesced to just coping.
Later in the book, the prophet reveals that God will restore Israel and Judah. Specifically, in Jeremiah 31:25, ESV he writes, “For I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish.” This is what we’re all hoping and believing to see. This time has caused all of us to reflect on what’s important. Like the quote from Gandi above, many of us have found that taking care of our internal physical, mental, emotional, relational, and spiritual health brings the most life satisfaction. We know and trust that our God will fill us up again!
