Sacred Strides: Sabbath as a Command, a Practice, and a GiftSample

DAY 3: Is Your Work Too Important for Rest?

Some people today are doing the most vital work imaginable, from providing clean water for people living without it to rescuing children from slavery to providing lifelines to people battling depression. I can’t imagine a world without the work they do.

More to the point, they work to undo all the ways humans are used and misused. But I don’t think God is interested in trading one utility system for another. I also don’t think God wants to “use” people to achieve even lofty and beautiful goals. God’s way is different.

At the end of a long day, Jesus and His disciples were caught in a boat when a storm came up and threatened to capsize them. The disciples had to wake Jesus: “Don’t you care if we drown?” they accused. Was that storm real, and did it pose a threat? Absolutely. But it wasn’t as real or pressing as Jesus’ need for a nap!

I understand how taking time away from important work can look like a lack of care. But in the practice of rest, I’ve learned that if I live my life at the pace of the urgencies around me, I will drown in the unrest and chaos within me. Consider this:

• Ministers share a six percent higher heart attack rate than people in other jobs.
• Three in five pastors burn out within ten years (that’s 60 percent).
• Forty-one percent of ministers are clinically obese.
• Eleven percent of pastors report being clinically depressed.

If we’re serious about doing serious jobs, then we need to be in better shape while doing it. Regardless of how important your work is, it matters as much to God that you “go out in joy” and are “led forth in peace.” It matters to God that you are healthy and whole (and even happy) while doing the work he has called you to do. Your legacy is not more important to God than the richness of your life while you build that legacy. In fact, legacy is the Love of God in you that you pass on to people. This is to say that, for God, there isn’t a competition between your work and your well-being.

Respond

What might God restore in your life as a result of practicing the Sabbath that you might be able to give back through your work to God and others?