What are we willing to do to find rest? Where do we go when we need rest? Whether it is physical, mental, or spiritual, there comes a time when we need to either catch our breath or unplug our muscles, brain, or spirit from the grind.
Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken. Do not trust in extortion, or take pride in stolen goods; though your riches increase, do not set your heart on them. (Psalm 62:5,6,10)
It’s well known and documented that muscles actually grow during recovery and rest. The stress of exertion and exercise actually breaks down the fibers and that during the healing process they grow stronger. I think the same holds true with our brains. As we work, think, and imagine, we create new connections in our mind that, as we learn new things and activities, they grow stronger and better connected. However, as in school, you can’t turn on learning 100% of the time. At some point you need to shift to application and reflection. When we take this time to apply something we’ve learned and reflect on why it worked out the way it did, we actually grow stronger.
What about our spirit? I think it is governed the same way and God directs our paths so that when we follow Him we have adequate time and opportunity for spiritual development, application, and rest. That rest is to be found in Him and is the time when our spirit recovers and is strengthened. If we are constantly pushing, trying to find new opportunities to serve, study, worship, and give more, we risk burn out and fatigue from not listening to the Spirit reminding us that we are to “Come to me, you who are weary, and I will give you rest.” Serving, studying, worshiping, and giving are all important, but we can’t fall into the trap of societies motto that “more is better.” Our Spirit is a muscle and we must learn to listen to it, just as we listen to our body after a workout, and keep a balance between overtraining and letting it atrophy.
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Pretty intense to think about the Ten Commandments in regard to rest.
ReplyDelete"Don't kill." Okay, easy enough.
"Don't steal." Okay, cool. I think I can handle that.
"Honor the Sabbath and keep it holy." Wait, what? But I have a t-ball game and yard work and I have to run to the grocery store...
But God knows us better than that. It takes Him, who needs no rest, demonstrating by His own example, that we are to work six days and then separate out the seventh day. It's important enough to Him to list the COMMANDMENT among the most heinous of offenses, inscribed by His own hand in stone. The word "sabbath" literally means "to cease". It is getting increasingly harder to do so in our busy busy busy lives. But it seems the one we need to embrace and to which we most need to surrender.
Thanks for the reminder via the psalms.
ouch.
ReplyDeleteI think the hardest thing for the "leader" type of person to do is to rest. I know when I was with FCA I would go from 4 am to midnight. I thought all was good. I was doing God's work. It is hard to pull back on the reins. We need to understand that if we try to do everything something will suffer.
ReplyDeleteAnd it's usually our families that suffer before we suffer.
ReplyDeleteI asked a friend one time who lost everything from overworking... "when did you know it was impacting your family too much?" HE replied, "When it was too late."
People suffer, Our ministry suffers, our family suffers, and we suffer... and probably the worst part: How we deceive ourselves into thinking our work/success depends on our strength instead of Gods.