From BURNOUT to BLISSنموونە

Slow Down– Take Time to Rest

“Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”
– Matthew 11:28

Sometimes the most spiritual thing we can do, is rest. In fact, Jesus invites us to find rest with Him just as much as He invites us to find purpose in Him. Jesus also took time to rest, to recover, and to simply catch up on much needed sleep (Matthew 8:23-24; Mark 4:38; John 4:6). God gave us the Sabbath for this very reason. Not as a religious routine of pleasing Him, but it was incorporated to give us rest (Mark 2:27).

The Jews to this day greet and bless each other with the phrase “Shabbat Shalom” on the Sabbath. Now it’s easy to understand Shabbat to mean “rest” and Shalom to mean “peace”. But Shabbat is not simply just rest, it is to find rest, and Shalom is not just any peace, but the peace of God. So, Shabbat Shalom, is literally to say to someone, “May you find rest in the peace of God”. Yet, somehow, this Sabbath rest became law, dictated by rules and regulations. And to the contrary, it later also became neglected in our post-modern era as old fashioned, unimportant, and legalistic. But God’s peaceful rest is rather a need we were created to enjoy.

When we run our lives at an intense pace, slowing down may feel counterproductive. However, if we run at a pace too intense to handle for too long, we end up crashing and burning. Think about the relevance, or irony even, of the Burning Bush and Moses. When Moses first encountered God, he met Him at a Burning Bush that simply would not burn out (Exodus 3:1-3). But at later stages throughout the Exodus, we read how Moses felt tired and, in fact, often burned out. Moses walked closely with God, but unlike the Eternal Bush that did not burn out, the earthly man who was called to lead, did grow tired. Moses needed to rest. Even Jesus needed it, and so do we. (Exodus 33:14)

Slowing down is not counterproductive, even if it feels counterintuitive. Burnout, on the other hand, leaves us completely ineffective. An engine that takes a pitstop is ready to go again after a short while. But an engine that starts burning has had its day. Enough hours of work throughout the day, the week, and the year, also grants us enough time to slow down, take a break, rest, and sleep. And while sleep is necessary for our bodies and minds to reboot, rest is also much more than simply sleeping. It’s about recharging as well. We can sleep through an entire weekend but not be recharged. Likewise, we can binge on a series for an entire evening and not find rest. The key is balance. Balance between passive downtime, deep sleep, and intentional periods of rest.

Our beings are wired for certain rhythms, and we need to learn to live in step with them. After three days, weeks or months, there’s a fatigue that sets in. That’s why the third day of training is often the toughest, it takes three weeks to form a habit and usually three months or so to see good results. After six months we tend to need a break of some sorts, after six weeks of training we tend to see results as well and after six days of hard work your body tells you to take a day-off.

May you, therefore, find the peace of God when you take time to slow down and rest…

Read Psalm 23 and reflect on the following…

1. What is your observation(s) from today’s scriptures and devotional?

2. How will you apply what you have learned today?

3. Pray about what God’s Word and the Holy Spirit is revealing to you…