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Episode 8: Embracing Rest
Welcome back to my last episode on Bloom Where We Are Planted. Today, I want to share about embracing rest. The opposite of work is not rest. Rather, work must embrace rest as part of effective working.
We are a piled-on, stretched-to-the-limit society. We are a tired generation. We have too much activity and try to remain connected all the time. We are stressed by information overload. We are stressed by accessibility overload. We can be stressed by anxiety overload too.
This can arise from problems we carry home from work or a combination of work, family or health-related anxieties. Many of us are like Job when he said: “I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil” (Job 3:26).
Remember that you and I only have one life to live and to enjoy. Is your life larger than your work or your work larger than your life? Should you work to live or live to work? Don’t ask God. He has already answered.
Consider God’s created rhythm of life. He paused after six days of creation, not for himself, but for us to emulate. He is telling us that rest is an important investment for productive work. It improves our health: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. It reinvigorates us for greater effectiveness and efficiency. It allows for a better state of being for healthier relationships. Psalm 23 states:
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
he restores my soul. (Psalms 23:2-3a)
These verses invoke a need to let God lead us to quiet waters. Why did God institute rest for our body and soul? Because we are not wired to work continuously. Otherwise, we literally work ourselves to death.
One of the ways God gives us rest is through sleep. There are two aspects of sleep that are necessary.
One is the regular sleep we all require. To have adequate amounts of sleep is a blessing. The Psalmist affirms this: “In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat — for he grants sleep to those he loves” (Psalms 127:2).
It is a forgone conclusion that there are consequences for inadequate amounts of sleep, both health-wise and in our productivity.
Having regular and adequate hours of sleep is only one part of the equation. The second aspect of sleep is that it must be good.
Research shows that poor sleep has immediate negative effects on our hormones, performance and brain function. Poor sleep can lead to health risks too.
There are many causes for poor sleep. Common sense would indicate that these include: caffeine intake late in the day, an irregular sleep routine, late night snacks, vigorous exercise late at night, focused work before bedtime, and an unfamiliar mattress or pillow.
There are many remedies, including various kinds of food or beverages that can increase the chance of good sleep. Information about these is readily available through various websites. However, one very important recipe for good sleep is to “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). This is both a belief and an act of will. You must first be convinced that God truly cares for you even in those areas that do not have a solution for the moment. Then you must act by faith that He will deliver you. The evidence of it is to rest in him while you sleep!
Sleep as a basic form of rest is vocation-blind. Whether you are serving in church ministry, in the workplace or as a homemaker, adequate and good sleep make for good stewardship of our bodies and souls.
God instituted the Sabbath as a day of rest after six days’ work. This is the second kind of rest. It is a rest from our weekly labor.
Sabbath comes from the Hebrew word that means “to cease, to stop working”. It refers to doing nothing related to work for a 24-hour period each week. We have to accept that keeping to this definition in practice is both challenging and radical for many of us. I am not here to be legalistic about full compliance.
I confess to falling short myself. Jesus himself warned against making the Sabbath a burden instead of a blessing. But the principle is both sound and necessary.
The Sabbath was made for men and not men for the Sabbath. We need to realize that the Sabbath is a blessing. The Sabbath was given to us as a gift, not a penalty.
There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest. (Hebrews 4:9-11a)
The principle is to have a longer period of rest, not just a momentary rest or nap. It is important enough for God to make it into a command for his people. But like all the other commandments, the benefits can only be experienced when appropriated.
There are at least three important types of restoration that come from rest:
Rest allows us to reflect and re-calibrate our moral senses.
This means the Lord restores our ability to listen and resonate with him. This takes active listening with our heart. We can sharpen our spiritual senses when we are at rest. The deep calls to the deep when we are at rest.
We can be weary because of the challenges we face, not least in the workplace.
The world works against our Christian values and there will always be tension. If we are weary, we may succumb to the world and its temptations.
We need to be reminded that we are not the one who keeps the world going, and that God is the ultimate provider of all things.
Jesus even chided his disciples for worrying too much as God was the one who provided for the “birds of the air” and the “lilies of the field” (Matthew 6:21-32). We are certainly more valuable to God than the world that he is sustaining — no thanks to us!
This restoration of our trust in God in our rested-ness is good for ourselves, our businesses and those we work with.
Here is an example of one who upheld this belief:
Truett Cathy, founder of the Chick-Fil-A restaurant chain, passed away in 2014 at the age of 93. He started the first Chick-Fil-A restaurant in 1967 in the Greenbriar Mall near Atlanta, Georgia. Today there are over 2,000 restaurants in over 40 states. Their restaurants are closed on Sundays because, as Truett Cathy puts it: “Closing our business on Sunday, the Lord’s Day, is our way of honoring God and showing our loyalty to Him.”
Closing on Sundays also allows their employees to attend church or to have a day of rest.
It was reported that the restaurant chain loses about US$1 billion a year as a result but there is no indication they will change their policy. Despite their action, some business experts commented: “It cements Chick-fil-A’s reputation, benefits workers, and persuades customers to come back with a greater sense of urgency.”
God honored Cathy and his family. He was listed among the billionaires on the Forbes
magazine’s 400 richest people in America.
Rest is stewardship. As Parker Palmer puts it:
Self-care is never a selfish act — it is simply good stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was put on earth to offer others. Anytime we can listen to true self and give it the care it requires, we do it not only for ourselves, but for the many others whose lives we touch.
This is true of ministry in church. This is true of ministry in our families. This is true of ministry in the workplace.
As I am now in my 60s, I appreciate this need for rest and self-care even more, and that includes the discipline to take short breaks. Otherwise, we cannot give more to those we love or those we wish to bless. As Peter Scazzero puts it: “Few Christians make the connection between love of self and love of others…. We are called to lay down our lives for others…. But remember, you first need a ‘self’ to lay down.”
Rest is a spiritual discipline.
What better way to have a clear mind to listen to the still small voice of God’s gentle spirit ministering to us than when we are at rest. It gives us clearer spiritual discernment.
This is what happened to Elijah when he had a pinnacle experience at Mount Carmel, defeating the 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah (1 Kings 18:16-40), and then frantically running away from Queen Jezebel who went all out to kill him (1 Kings 19:1-9). He became depressed and suicidal, thinking he was fighting this all on his own.
The antidote? The angel of the Lord touched him, fed him and caused him to have a good rest. This restored his perspective. This energized him. This sharpened his spiritual senses. It enabled him to finish well and equip his protégé Elisha. As a result, he became a revered prophet rather than a defeated one.
A greater one was and is here — Jesus. And he taught us to embrace rest too! How can we do any less? Jesus also bids us:
Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:28-30)
We disobey at our peril.
1. What would constitute proper rest from work?
2. What are the consequences of being rest-less? Do you have any personal experience?
3. How would Sabbath rest restore our souls? Are there Bible verses or events to support this?
4. Do you agree that adequate rest is a spiritual discipline? Discuss.