There is someone in my life who leaves me empty every single time we speak. How do I love them without losing myself?

“And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?”

Nehemiah was rebuilding Jerusalem's wall while local officials kept inviting him down to the plain to talk it over. He recognised the invitations as a way to stop the work, and sent back the same answer four times: he was doing a great work and could not come down. He did not insult them and he did not go. That is a model for repeated, calm refusal without contempt in it.

“And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.”

Mark's Gospel moves fast, and here the disciples return from ministry to a crowd so constant that they cannot even eat. Jesus' response is not to push through on their behalf. He tells them to come away to a quiet place and rest a while. The need in front of them was real and he still called them out of it, which says something about how God views a person running on empty.