Is it time for you to rest?
I know it is for me.
After what may have been the busiest summer of my ministry career I’m enjoying this week of vacation. Between more family responsibility & ministry responsibility than I’ve ever had I’m ready for a break after this summer! Don’t get me wrong, it’s been amazing. The past ten weeks have flown by. But now that it’s over I’m ready to take a deep breath & push pause!
For the past 17 summers (21 if you count internships) I’ve spent every summer planning & leading events for students with the earnest desire that each summer would help our students grow closer to each other & to God. This past summer was the first time I’ve flown solo on staff. We had two absolutely amazing interns. And I have one of the best ministry assistants on the planet! I work with amazing teens & parents. I’m incredibly blessed to be at the church where I serve. But this summer I had no other staff person to help divide & conquer the crazy summer schedule we had planned. And over the past several years I’ve felt a bit like Gideon as God has continually removed ministry resources. Yet there is still something within me that desires to do everything we’ve ever done to bless the souls & lives of students as I try desperately to create environments & put them in environments that would lead them closer to the Lord Jesus Christ.
God has always been faithful. Even after this incredibly busy summer I’m tired, but I’m not worn out. I’m weary, but it’s not burn out. This may be the first summer I can remember where I didn’t get sick. Where I didn’t have to go to the doctor to get drugs or antibiotics to be well enough to do the next trip or event. This is, in part, because I realize now more than ever the importance of rest.
Rest is central to who we are as people created in the image of God.
[Tweet “Rest is central to who we are as people created in the image of God.”]God rested. (Genesis 2.2)
Jesus withdrew. (Luke 5.16)
We need rest also. As people who are called to follow Jesus & imitate God, we have lost the art of sabbath.
In his book, “The Sabbath” Abraham Joshua Heschel says, “Sanctifying the Sabbath is part of our imitation of God, but it also becomes a way to find God’s presence.”
We should always live from a place of rest. The Sabbath was set up by God as a holy day of rest. After creation, God rested. One of the Ten Commandments was to “Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.” (Exodus 20.8-11) And God had more to say about this commandment to keep the Sabbath than any other commandment he gave His people! Yet it’s the one we probably ignore the most. The Sabbath day was a day to rest from your work & display your trust in God to provide. When we don’t rest from our work it’s a signal that we don’t completely trust God to provide. This is precisely why we don’t rest. We worry if we stop working, even for a moment, that the plates we’re spinning will come crashing down. Practically, we trust ourselves more than we trust God. The result, we don’t rest.
We long for rest. And this is a spiritual longing.
Most of the time I find myself killing myself longing for some point in the future when I can find rest. Somehow we’ve fallen under the false assumption that to be busy is a good thing. The world doesn’t need a spiritual version of a busy life. God isn’t busy. He’s not in a rush. And we are not imitating Him well if we are living a frenetic, chaotic life. We need to slow down, create margin & live from a place of rest. And when we do something vital happens, we create space to find our way into the presence of God.
[Tweet “The world doesn’t need is a spiritual version of a busy life. Slow down.”]I think part of the reason we find ourselves in this predicament is that we have a false sense of what rest is.
What real rest is not…
Rest isn’t going on a Netflix binge. I’ve found that watching TV does very little to feed my mind, soul & body. So while I do enjoy taking in an episode here or there, or watching a movie with my family, it’s not my primary, secondary or even tertiary form of refilling my soul as I withdraw for a break. And rest isn’t the absence of activity. It’s not laying around on the couch for 3 days straight. It’s not sleeping for 18 hours. None of these things refresh us.
This week I plan to rest, to refill & pray for God to renew my energy, restore my strength, refresh my spirit & body. But the only way that can happen is if I have the discipline to do a few things that really matter.
What real rest is…
Real rest involves spiritual disciplines. They are disciplines because they take an intentional commitment. They don’t happen on accident. They happen on purpose. They are spiritual because they are fundamental to the way God wired & created us. I believe when we commit to real rest God sustains us, gives us energy & strength.
I’m just enjoying this week taking a break from all things work so I can reconnect deeply with God & my family. I think one of the ways God has been able to sustain me this summer is through some of the disciplines I’ve been faithful to practice. These are the same disciplines I plan to amplify this week as I take time to rest, renew & recalibrate my life.
1. Sleep hard.
This week I plan to answer as few email & texts as humanly possible. I want to mentally detach from work. Not out of any sort of spite, but precisely because I do love it so much I need to lay it down for a week. And here’s the thing, there is a Messiah & I am not Him. And it’s not my work that He’s a part of, it’s His work I get to be a part of. And so while I take a mental break for these few days, I have complete confidence He will carry it through. So I plan to sleep well every night & not worry. I plan to take long naps, relax, sleep & renew.
2. Eat well.
I plan to eat well. I plan to eat breakfast, lunch & dinner with my wife & kids every day this week. Something I’ve rarely had time to do this summer. In fact, I’ve probably spent more meal times away from my family than with my family this summer. And that’s something I plan change this week. So I plan to eat well with those I care about most. Because at the end of the day I want those that love me the most to respect me the most. And that can’t happen if I’m not present. So I plan to eat well with my family every day.
3. Exercise daily.
Whether it’s running in the morning or swimming the ocean, I plan to physically exert myself every day for 30 minutes to let those endorphins kick in! Because there’s nothing better to renew your strength than to get some good exercise. To sweat out the stress, worry & the anxiety. To breath in the breath of God. This may sound counter intuitive, but I believe to find real rest we have to exert ourselves physically. The thing is, it’s all tied together. Our spiritual, emotional, mental & physical needs all depend one on the other. If one is out of balance we feel it.
4. Begin Every Day with God.
One question I get asked is, “How do you keep your relationship with God strong?” Or, “How do you take care of yourself spiritually?” There are a lot of ways I could answer that question, but the simplest answer is something I figured out a few years ago. It’s not rocket science, but it took me a long time to figure out. If I don’t wake up before everyone else & devote 30-60 minutes of quiet time to being with God, it won’t happen. I’m not a morning person. At first I hated this but now it’s one of the things I look forward to most. When I miss a morning with God, I feel it all day long. These morning quiet times filled with scripture, journaling, prayer, meditation, etc. have become a life source for me. After the kids wake up, the sun comes up, or I get to the office my email starts going, phone & text messages start ringing any hope for a few minutes of quiet is shot. So i’ve committed to waking up early to spend a small amount of time alone with God in the quiet. And it’s become an anchor for me.
So this week I’m enjoying a bit of rest. I am sleeping hard, eating well, enjoying running at the beach & waking up every morning with God as the sun rises over the ocean. Everyday our family has a devotional where we thank God for what He has done. (Philippians 4.6) And so far, this has been the best week!
That’s my plan as I try to rest, renew, refresh & recalibrate my life this week. And I pray that God would give you the same opportunity.
Please leave a comment below. And subscribe to my blog by entering your email address & you’ll get each new post delivered right to your inbox! Thanks!
