The shepherd and his sheep

This past month or so has been incredibly hectic at times. There have been many times that I wanted to get on here and share my thoughts but either lack of time or energy kept me from doing so. During this time I learned a new perspective on why somethings in life happen to us. I went through a period of time in which our family was intensely busy with helping others and then one day I was so physically exhausted, as well as mentally and emotionally I'm sure that I literally had barely enough strength to walk from room to room. I was not sick with the flu, just weak down to the very inner core of me. Due to this I was forced to step back from a good deal of what I believed I was supposed to be doing. During the first day this occurred and the week or so afterwards which involved lots of downtime for me and our family, I had an insightful conversation with a dear friend. She explained to me that when a shepherd feels that a sheep is not walking where he wants him to be that at times he will break his leg and then carry him around his shoulders until the leg is fully healed. I took some time to really think about this. It's not that any of what I was doing was displeasing to my Shepherd, just possibly though I was not walking at His pace. He knows me better than anyone else and knew that in order to slow me down and provide my refreshment He would have to weaken my entire body. Pain in and of itself doesn't really slow me down since due to different physical things I deal with it chronically. I have learned to adapt. I found it very intriguing that during this time of "breaking my leg" I didn't really experience much pain, I was just too drained to do anything. After about a week my normal level of strength returned.
Due to this experience I am striving to listen more closely to my Shepherd as well as the incredible husband and friends that I have in order to protect myself from total exhaustion. I know that a lot of what drives me to do and help others is the realization that our time is so fleeting on this earth and I want mine and my families life to truly show the love of Jesus to those around us who are searching so desperately for a sliver of hope.