There is a phrase people say almost automatically when someone becomes ill or suffers a heart attack: “Take care of yourself.” It sounds compassionate, but when examined more closely, it reveals how deeply conditioned we are to center self while quietly omitting God. I was watching an episode of One Day at a Time where a character suffered a heart attack, and the immediate response was the same familiar phrase. Later in the episode, someone said, “There’s nothing like family in a time of crisis.” That statement stayed with me far longer than the scene itself.
Why do we wait for crisis to rediscover family? Why are people trained to live independently, carrying burdens alone, until their bodies collapse under the weight of doing everything by themselves? For many people, “taking care of yourself” is exactly how they became ill. They took care of themselves because no one else would. They filled gaps that were never meant to be filled alone. They carried responsibilities that were meant to be shared within family, community, and most importantly, under God’s order.
This is not what God commands. God does not command self-preservation at the expense of obedience. He does not command independence apart from Him. He does not instruct us to omit Him until the moment we are forced to admit ourselves into a hospital. Yet this is the pattern we see repeatedly. Humans omit God and His will long before they omit themselves and their own will. And when the body finally demands rest, confusion follows. Why did this happen? Why now?
I know this truth personally. After being stabbed, I found myself facing life-threatening injuries with no one willing to help me. I suffered a collapsed lung, spinal damage, total nerve damage on my left side, and a host of other injuries. While I lay there recovering, doctors asked a simple but sobering question: Who will care for you? The truth was hard to say out loud. Everyone was busy. Life continued on for others, while mine had been violently interrupted.
At the same time, I had become a single mother. My attacker was my ex, still on the loose, and I was left to raise my children under conditions most people never imagine or care to deal with. I chose to raise my children while my own body was broken, I learned what it truly means when people say, “Take care of yourself.” It often means you are on your own. And that is not God’s design.
This is why Divine Connections exists. Because you do not have to do it alone. There is more to life than being alone and living alone. God never intended for people to survive by isolation. He designed us for connection, order, care, and restoration under His authority.
The answer to collapse and fatigue is not more self-reliance. It is obedience. Rest was postponed. Obedience was replaced with sacrifice. Self became central, and God became optional. Rest is not neglect. Obedience is not recklessness. Trusting God is not irresponsibility. Rest is commanded, and trust is required.
We often say the body needs a minimum of eight hours of sleep, but in truth, I have seen that the body is restored more fully with ten to twelve hours of real rest. Not anxious rest. Not rushed rest. Not guilt-filled rest. Real rest that says, God, You are God, and I am not. Do what needs to be done, then go rest. Let God be God. Let Him produce what only He can produce.
Scripture makes this plain: “To obey God is better than sacrifice” (1 Samuel 15:22). God sees the labor. He honors obedience. He restores those who serve Him without abandoning His order.
Crisis should not be the place where we rediscover family, community, or faith. These things are meant to sustain us before collapse, not rush toward us afterward. At Divine Connections, we believe restoration begins with order, and order begins with God. When God is first, rest follows. When rest follows, restoration comes. And when restoration comes, the body no longer has to cry out to be heard.
I pray this post reaches the one who has ears to hear, eyes to see, and a heart that understands. May repentance come today, not in fear, but in truth. And may each reader step fully into who God created them to be.
Let God be God.
And let that be enough.
For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister. Hebrews 6:10
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