Proverbs 17: 22

Proverbs 17: 22

(Complete Jewish Bible) A happy heart is good medicine, but low spirits sap one’s strength.

(NIV) A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

(Amplified) A happy heart is good medicine and a cheerful mind works healing, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.

(New Living Translation) A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength.

This familiar scripture virtually jumped off the page at me this morning during my daily perusal of a chapter in Proverbs. I believe it made that leap because it ties into something I read the other day that I have been meditating on since. Reading on the need to renew our spiritual passion, I was taken with a passage talking about how debilitating it is to our passion/energy when we expend energy in nonrenewable ways. More specifically it addressed the danger of allowing others around us to drain our spiritual energy.

A depleted energy/passion is drained whether it is a personal ‘dry inner well’ or because someone else drains it from us. Think of the woman with the blood issue that touched the hem of Jesus’ garment; He was aware of the energy pull He felt; differentiating it from the contact of the crowd around him.

We’ve all known someone that just wore you down when you spent time with them. Maybe you couldn’t put your finger on it but you always walked away feeling drained and tired. These are energy/passion sappers.

In reading the scripture above, it occurred to me that not only does a low and broken spirit affect the person carrying it around; it can draw down those around them. Equally, being around someone with a happy cheerful heart can lift and renew those around them. There are exceptions, of course, like the person that simply refuses to be encouraged or lifted up; a mega-energy/passion sapper! Oh, my! No amount of encouragement makes a difference with these people because they have closed their minds and hearts. God can change them but only when they let Him in.

We need energy/passion to flow out to those in need but we also need others around us that help rebuild our energy/passion. We have to find a balance that allows us to help our fellow man without leaving us so drained we are no longer able to do that which God has assigned us. Does that sound calloused and self-serving to you? With Jesus as our example and role model, we read in scripture of Him taking time away from the constant demands of people on both his time and energies to rest, pray, and renew. You can not give out that which you do not possess. We need be aware and protective when we see something or someone demanding and draining us of our spiritual energy/passion; we must strive to maintain our reserve of renewable energy/passion. Remember….A happy heart is good medicine, but low spirits sap one’s strength. Wishing you a happy heart….