One final piece to the “life realignment” series is tank-filling activities. Tank-filling activities, as you can probably guess, are activities that “fill your tank.” 🙂
The idea for this comes from a lesson Wayne Cordeiro, senior pastor of New Hope Christian Center in Hawaii, taught at the 2006 Willow Creek Leadership Summit (see this page for CD/DVD product info). Cordeiro highlighted the importance of engaging in activities that fill your tank.
About a year ago, Joleen and I put together a list of activities that fill our tanks, things like hiking, biking, watching movies, etc. Since then, we’ve both finished writing dissertations, we’ve become parents of a baby boy, and we’ve moved to new ministries — all of which has brought a lot of challenges to our list.
As we move forward, we’ll be able to continue some of the activities (watching movies), but other activities may have to be adjusted (hiking, hiking). Part of finding our new rhythm involves figuring out what activities we can practice that will fill our tanks as individuals and as a family.
One of the main points Cordeiro made was that the busier you get, and the more intense life gets, the more tank-filling activities you need to engage in. Unfortunately, most of us do the opposite. Too often, we allow the tank-filling activities to get squeezed out when the going gets tough. When that happens, we get drained, our tanks get empty, and we have little or nothing to live on, let alone give for others.
But when our tanks are full, we’re more equipped to live full, healthy lives, and to be able to give more for others. That’s what life and ministry are all about!
What activities fill your tank?
This is the final post in this series on Life Realignment. Previous posts include Nutrition, Exercise, and Rest.