On Rest and Relaxation

We all want more time to rest and relax. We crave those days when we have nothing much to do but to sit down with friends or family and just simply talk, even if about nothing. I some days just simply crave more time with God when I can talk to Him with an open and vulnerable heart and not in a hurry to get to work or to my next appointment. Sometimes, even taking time to write these blogs is a major enterprise, not because I don’t have anything to share, but simply because I don’t find the time, or perhaps make the time, to sit down, focus and write. We sometimes run around like “chickens with our heads cut off”. This analogy is very meaningful to me, because I remember back in Cuba when you would go to the market place and buy live chickens which then would be brought home and their necks twisted in such a way that they died after jumping around for a while. I know you don’t want to hear of these things but that is the experience of many in other countries, where animals are purchased alive. This word-picture is a living one for me. Sometimes our schedules rule us in such a way that we feel harassed, restless, busy, and in a hurry, jumping around like one of these chickens.

As if by a message from the Lord, two different magazines I received this month and within days of each other, addressed this issue for me, one was a daily devotional by Ligonier Ministries named TableTalk which I use often in my daily quiet times. It has articles and a daily Bible reading with a brief commentary. In the month of February the articles addressed the issue of Labor and Rest. The different authors focused on how the creation story in Genesis 1 calls us to “labor” and in fact God Himself calls the man and woman, whom He created in His image, to that noble task of laboring, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” God Himself “labored” for six days creating all that has ever been created. “Labor” is good, it is honorable and it is helpful and contributes to our own wellbeing, that of our families and of society.

But Genesis 1 also calls us to “rest”, for God also rested on the seventh day. He so intended for us to follow after His example on this issue, that He hallowed the seventh day and made it holy, that is He separated it from the rest of the days as a day of rest and relaxation, and a day of worship to Him. For us to labor without rest is then an act of disobedience of biblical proportions. All of us must find and make time to rest and relax from work, all of us need a time to have some fun and enjoy the company of family and friends, a time to do the things that bring us peace and joy. We all must make the time, it generally will not come to you without you planning for it and making sure you keep that appointment with your own body, soul and mind.

The second magazine I mentioned above is the Leadership Journal, winter 2015. In it there is a very interesting article by Bill Hybels, pastor of one of the largest churches in the country, titled, The Secret of Strategic Neglect and it is based on a book he just wrote under the title Simplify. In it he tells us about sitting down with his calendar before the Lord and a submitted spirit and scheduling not all that he wants to accomplish but asking himself in the presence of God who he wants to become, as a father, a husband, a friend and a pastor, then and only then, he will schedule work stuff. Bill says that “simplifying his life is not necessarily about doing less but about working smarter.” You have to ask yourself constantly, “what does God want me to accomplish?” and then purposely “neglect” those things He is not calling you to do.

Wow! Do I even dare practice these principles? I wonder what my calendar would look like if I start chopping it down to size. What would I leave out that I am doing today - Diocesan involvement, which of the Bible Studies should I stop doing, how about my daily meditation I write for the congregation? Do I limit how many people I see for counseling each week? Where do I start? For one thing I must continue to put self, family and friends ahead of work, always making time in my schedule for us/them, occasionally take days off, even a study week where I read books that refresh and build me. Secondly pace myself, where I can, and be clear as to what is of the Lord and what is of my ego as a pastor. Will you give it a try as well? Let me know what you think?