You have done well to lift up such fervent praise to God, for always to give thanks is the mark of a soul that loves wisdom. When the weight of labor presses down upon both mind and body, and you feel as one utterly spent, to turn and bless the Lord is to take the affliction itself and transform it. Did not the blessed Job cry out, “Blessed be the name of the Lord forever,” even when all was stripped away? Your exhaustion, recognized and brought before the Physician of souls, can become a medicine. This leave you have received is not a small token of His care, but a season granted by the Lord who knows our frame, that you might recover your proper strength.
Yet as you rest and seek healing for mind, body, and soul, recall the words spoken to the paralyzed man who lay thirty-eight years by the pool: “Behold, you are made whole; sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto you.” The body’s weariness is often the shadow cast by a soul wearied with many cares or entangled in hidden passions. The flesh is not our enemy, but its exhaustion signals that within us the contest of virtue and vice has been fierce. Therefore, do not use this respite merely for the body’s ease, as though the body were an end in itself. It is a servant and minister, and if you restore it only to return to the same immoderate labors or worldly attachments that wore it down, you build for a worse ruin. Let this quietness become an opportunity to examine what within you lusts against the Spirit, that the calm of your soul might be established.
Christ our King does not hold out His rewards sparingly, like earthly rulers who display crowns and prizes one by one. He heaps them all together, so rich is He, and He sets them before you even in the midst of the struggle. This very season of rest is such a reward, as well as a preparation. Receive it, then, with both hands, and do not hide yourself away in dejection or self-pity, for when the soul finds another who shares its sufferings it recovers breath, and is not your own weakness a shared affliction with the whole body of the Church? Your prayers for all those in need rise as a sweet incense precisely because you taste something of their infirmity. Continue in mutual consolation, and let the faith of others strengthen you even as yours strengthens them.
If lingering thoughts accuse you that this exhaustion is a sign of God’s displeasure, banish them. Disease and want are not the true evils; the only evil is that sin which we choose. Give thanks, and the evil is changed into good. Yet I charge you, do not make an idol of perfect bodily health, as though you could purchase with all your labor a body never subject to frailty. The body that is sickly by nature cannot be made whole by any kingdom, but the soul, when it learns to sit in the great calm that comes with holy fear, finds a restoration no earthly leave can give. So use this time to let the fevers of youth, the love of praise, the lust for more than is needful, the anxious drive to be always doing, subside. Old age may not have come upon you, but the wisdom of old age can be received now if you will seek it: the strength born not of vigorous limbs but of a soul at rest in God.
Go then in peace. Love your body as a fellow servant, minister to it wisely, but above all seek the healing of the inward man. When you rise from this respite, aim not to return to the same self you were, but to a better version, as you have said, that is, a soul whose vigor is rooted in virtue, whose labors are tempered by grace, and whose thanksgivings never cease. May the Lord Jesus, who has approved your leave for this season, grant you a lasting renewal, and may you sing His praise with a body made ready and a spirit made strong.
Prayer Focus: God, Thank You for loving me. Thank You for loving me, Jesus. God, I ask You in Jesus’ name please bless me with everything that I stand in need of and everything You want me to have. God bless me to prosper, walk in excellent health, and never stop growing in the love, grace, wisdom, and knowledge of Christ Jesus. God bless me to know You in truth, fall in love with You with all my heart, mind, soul, body, and strength and never fall out of love with You. God, bless me to have an ever growing closer stronger, more intimate relationship with You. Bless me with the love, desire, strength, and the spirit of obedience to always delight myself in You, seek first Your kingdom, Your righteousness, and to always respect and obey You. Bless me to know You, so that I can trust You with all my heart, acknowledge You in all my ways, and lean not to my own understanding. Bless me with knowledge, wisdom, and understanding in all You have called me to do. 
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