Jenn McGarvey Blackston
jennifer.mcgarvey@mailbox.ciu.edu
MIN 5310
2-10-11
Mark 2:27-28- Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath." The Sabbath was God's idea and he takes it seriously; even Jesus understood the idea of rest.
I am going to quote Dr. King, from his book, "Time Management is Really Life Management", and then share some of my own thoughts concerning rest.
" There are some things that God wants to teach you that you can only learn when you are resting. You can only really learn grace when you are at rest. You can only experience the reality of God loving you just as much when you are intentionally non-productive as when you are "useful". Trusting God to provide for and sustain the investment made during your working hours as you go "off the clock" can only be learned when you are resting." (p. 30) " We leak! We all expend strength, vitality, and focus as we work. Depletion is a gift from God to set limits for our lives. We bear the image of our Creator but we do not share his unlimited power and strength. God does not leak. We do. Some of us have been taught it is noble to be in a continual place of exhaustion from our service to God. That implies we are in danger of being more spiritual than God who prescribed rest." (p. 29) "Not working may be pictured as childlike play, in the best sense. Playing has no goal to achieve, or end to accomplish, but the play itself is the end." (p. 31)
When I was in undergrad at Toccoa Falls College, a typical Sunday went something like this: Go to sunday school, attend the church service, have lunch somewhere, hit the books, go to the evening service, study some more, and then go to bed. Monday would come around and I would wonder why I was so tired. Most of Saturday was also spent studying. I would actually feel guilty if I didn't study on Sunday- it just seemed as if there weren't enough hours in the day to get everything accomplished I "needed to do. I started my seminary career in the fall of 2007 and to my surprise, I found out that CIU encourages students not to study on Sunday. In my mind, I was thinking, "are you kidding me?" It was a foreign concept to me to not study on Sunday. At first, I have to admit, I did continue to study on Sunday. In time, I decided to give the whole "not studying" thing a try; what could it really hurt? It was a real struggle for me at first and I struggled with guilt. I was challenged when one of my friends pointed out that rest is productive; just not in the way I would normally view productivity. She challenged me to think about rest as a gift as opposed to a burden. I asked the Lord to help me rest in the moment and enjoy a day to just relax. After a few Sundays of not studying, I began to see the value of rest and it no longer seemed like a burden. The Lord began showing me that his love for me is not determined by how much I produce for him; he loves me the same whether I'm accomplishing something or whether I'm resting. Christ understood the value of rest and it was normal for him to get away by himself and spend time with the Father. I am learning to embrace the things that tend to my soul- listening to uplifting music, reading a book, blogging, taking time to enjoy God's creation, hanging out with my husband, spending time with "little people", watching a favorite show, etc. Rest recharges and renews us and as leaders we need to model resting to those under our care. I love the quote above of how rest is like child-play. If you ever need an example of what rest looks like, spend an afternoon with a child. Kids are fully present in the moment of play and they are not worried about accomplishing a task on their "to do list". They are engaged and everything is fun and exciting when they play. We have much to learn from children! We need to get away from the concept that rest in someway, makes us less in God's sight. He created the Sabbath and he knows how important it is for us to rest.We will burn out quickly if we don't begin to learn the value of resting. How are you resting today? What are the things you need to do to tend to your soul? These are just some of my thoughts on resting. I don't rest perfectly; I am learning how to rest and not allowing myself to feel guilty when I choose to obey. If you think about it, taking a Sabbath isn't a suggestion made by Christ; it's a command!
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