There was a time in my life that I had just moved to a new city to become a senior pastor of a church. I had 4 preschoolers. I was preaching 3 times each week, doing all the hospital, homebound, and grief visitation. I was officiating a funeral or two each month and trying to write a newsletter article each week. I had also committed some time for some local pastors to help mentor me a couple of times a month. I joined the deacon’s meeting each month and often helped clean up the restrooms when the toilets overflowed. We had also started a Summer Day Camp to reach the kids in the neighborhood. During that time, I rarely slept through the night, at least one of the kids was awake at some point and when I would put them back in their bed, I fell asleep on the floor of their room waiting for them to finally get easy. I was often up early writing the next sermon because there was always a sermon needed. To say that I had no rest or margin in my life for those years was an understatement. I had no energy to bring my best self to my family or my church. When I shared my plan with the church board to focus more energy on Sunday morning and mid-week and drop the Sunday evening worship, they replied, “Preacher, we are paying you for 3 sermons a week,” though no one on the board attended on Sunday nights.
Solomon, the wisest man to live on earth warns, “Over-work makes for restless sleep.” (Ecclesiastes 5:3 MESSAGE) We can exhaust ourselves in so many activities that we never rest. We can spend our lives in a meaningless race for fleeting temporal rewards that we may make our exhaustion sound spiritual. Psalm 127:2 reminds us, “In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat — for he grants sleep to those he loves.” Our real sufficiency comes from how much our all-sufficient God loves us and provides for us not from our own endless efforts to satisfy the expectations of the people around us. As it turns out, rest in our lives is as important as our activity.
God has emphasized a rhythm of regular rest in our lives from the beginning. In Hebrew thought, the day begins at Sundown, so our days actually start with rest. Genesis 1:5 says, “And there was evening, and there was morning — the first day.” For God to start with evening, means He blesses creation with rest first, then He blesses us to bring our rested self to our tasks during the day. He also gives His people a rhythm of rest each week. He prescribes six days of work and one Sabbath day of rest. God’s rhythms in creation were the best model for us all. Genesis 2:1-3 (CSBBible) says, “So the heavens and the earth and everything in them were completed. On the seventh day God had completed his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, for on it he rested from all his work of creation.” How are you doing with your daily and weekly rhythms of rest?
Hang in there people. God is glad to be with us. I’m praying for us all.
