rest

I participated in a research study at Wake Forest Baptist earlier this year that I have been a part of for about 10 years now.  One of the things I did in my initial visit for this part of the study was sit down and run through a typical schedule of my week.  One of the first questions for me was what two days do you take off of work. 

I didn’t know what to say.  I knew the answer, but I felt guilty, ashamed, embarrassed and likely a host of other emotions that I don’t feel comfortable thinking back on now even though it has been months since this conversation.

I told her I don’t really have a day off.  She said, well what about Saturday and Sunday.  So, I explained that one of my jobs is working at a church and the other is at a soccer club, so those are the days that the rest of my week is building up to.  

I said, “I kind of take Tuesdays off.”  But then I felt even worse, so I said “my wife would laugh at me right now if she heard that.”  Now that I think of it, Patrick, Brandon and Carson would laugh at me as well because we meet at 6:45 Tuesday mornings for staff meetings.  That is quite the way to start a “day off”.  It’s not really like the rest of my Tuesdays are “off” anyways, that was just the day that I will take off when I try really hard or maybe have a slow week.

Then the very next week, my boss at soccer told me in our meeting that he wanted me to tell him what day I am going to take off each week at our weekly Monday meeting.  That seemed like such a considerate and genuine effort to take care of me, and it was, but being forced to take a day off these last few months has been the most stressful and difficult thing I have had to do all year.

I know, that seems ridiculous.  That is probably because it is ridiculous.  But unfortunately it is also completely true.  

This was such a hard concept for my boss and I to do that we had to start keeping track of the actual full days off that we took.  That meant, no checking email, no work related phone calls, no going to the soccer field to do anything, and no prepping anything for the next day or week.  Wanna guess how many days we took off between the two of us throughout the 12 week season?  A combined eight. We only got to eight because I took two full days when I traveled up to Indiana for my grandfather's funeral.  

Why is this so hard?  I know it's not just the “high stakes” recreation soccer world that finds it hard to take time off work.  Many of you are or at least have been there.  

We even celebrate the idea of working a lot and keeping ourselves busy as a society.  How often have you said or heard someone else say they are “staying busy” when someone asks how they have been.  And I’ll bet that was always met with “ well that’s good”.  Why is that good?  Why do we feel guilty if we take some time off, or enjoy not having something to do?

I heard an author and Pastor recently say that “A spiritual discipline is anything you see in the life of Jesus that you want to imitate.  You could make the argument that mountain climbing is a spiritual discipline.”  We talk about spiritual disciplines like reading our bible everyday and prayer, and even meditation regularly.  

With that quote in mind, I am going to say that resting is a spiritual discipline.  I’ll cite one of my favorite stories from the life of Jesus in Mark 4:35-40 to back that up:

On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” 

There is a lot to unpack here, but I want to specifically look at how Jesus rested.  First, he left the crowd.  He was on earth to save people, and resting was so important to him that he gave himself permission to walk away from them for a time.  Second, he was sleeping literally in the middle of a storm.  In the middle of chaos and panic, he still took time to rest.  Third, he questioned their faith and asked what they were afraid of.  He basically said why are you wasting your time worrying and stressing out about something that you cannot control (He could control it and He did in a quite spectacular fashion by the way).  Life is going to happen whether you are stressed and awake or sleeping.  

I have talked myself out of resting time and time again because things get crazy and I need to be the one to fix everything.  Or because what I am doing is so noble and fulfilling that I need to rest later.  Just like the disciples, I have convinced myself that because I care about the work I am doing, I have to address it and fix anything wrong with it now.  There is no time to rest or put things off.

I think we need to take seriously the idea of resting as a spiritual discipline.  John Ortberg once asked Dallas Willard, “What do I need to do to be spiritually healthy?”  Willards response surprised Ortberg, but I’ll end with it: “You need to ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.”

(If you are interested in reading more about this idea, there is a book by John Mark Comer titled, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry.)