6 Habits of Purposeful LeadersSample

Habit #6: Sabbath

One of the greatest lies for leaders is that everything relies on us. It is up to us to keep all the plates spinning. No one can do things like we can. We might be needed at any moment to put out a fire that only we can extinguish. No one cares as much as we do. God needs us to hurry. Lies!

Some of us are in such an internal power drive, that even when the weekend comes, we can’t fully rest. We have a to-do list a mile long. We have church to attend. We have mouths to feed. And then when we push ourselves too far, we crash. We sneak a brief recharge, but it is not enough. We become snappy with our colleagues and our families. We nitpick. We become absent even when we are present. But here’s the craziest thing of all, many of us are conditioned into thinking this is how a leader is supposed to live. We think this is normal. We believe that the more we give, the more we will receive.

Taking a day of rest makes us admit that it’s not us who keeps the world moving. The stars still hang in the sky and the sun still shines without us. We are not meant to do it all. We are not even meant to try. Taking a day of rest restores our perspective.

It’s okay to take a day to experience the wonder of what exists beyond us. Allowing ourselves to sabbath helps us remember how small we are. When we forget how small we are, we forget who is dependent on who. When we remember how small we are, we can be amazed by all that is bigger than us. We can recognise a great big God in places we haven’t noticed before.

We long to hear from God that we’ve done enough, that it is okay to rest. And that is exactly what He keeps telling us! Jesus has paid the ultimate price for us. Our salvation doesn’t need to be earned. What we have is an invitation to live and work purposefully to bring glimpses of the Kingdom here to earth. But we can’t do that if we are so focused with earth that we don’t take the time to experience the Kingdom, be in awe of it, visualise what it would look like in our workplaces, and bring it there.

So, let’s adjust our perspective. Let’s trust that God doesn’t need us to accomplish His will. He invites us to enjoy purposeful work with Him. And He gives us the gift of the sabbath to help us recalibrate each week.

Just like with any important goal, we must create a plan for it and hold ourselves accountable. Pick a day of the week to rest with the goal of the day to restore your perspective of God and His love for you and for others. Take a day to be amazed by God’s love. If you work with your hands, you may want to sabbath with your mind. If you use your brain all week, you may want to plan an active sabbath. Go for hikes, spend time in nature, go for prayer walks, host dinners to celebrate all that God has done, read books that open your eyes to new viewpoints, learn about some of the things that God is doing globally and how people are experiencing His presence. Above all else, focus on being with God, not doing things for God. He just wants to hang out with you, restore you, and show you new wonders. Accept the invitation.

And after you’ve rested, keep leading purposefully. May you be blessed in your leadership and experience a life that is truly worth living both at the office and outside of it.

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