Balancing Rest and Work

There is never a dull moment in life.

Oh, did I say dull?  I meant lull.

There is never a lull moment that willingly presents itself.  Especially as you age, finding that peace takes conscious effort.  Our days consist of rise, work, rest.  While we are committed to rising and working, and we really to resting?

If you don’t commit to the search, these moments will continually escape you and soon you will find yourself wound down so deep you won’t be able to recover from spiritual, emotional, and physical fatigue.

One of the books I’m reading is John Eldredge’s Walking with God.  I really like it.  In a section entitled Slowing Down to Listen, John talks about begin trapped in his summer cabin.  Yes, trapped.  He was prepared for a vacation full of fixing this, fixing that, painting this, building that, and it was all put to an end before it began.  Why?  Because at his summer cabin, it’s raining.

I’m pretty darn sure God told me to come, and now it’s raining.  I needed rest more than I knew.  But I am so addicted to busyness, I was about to turn his gift of rest into a week of chores.  Fix the fence, paint the door, get ‘er done.  So he has to pin me down on the porch so that I don’t wreck the gift he’s trying to give.

           

This often happens to me.  Finding a moment of peace, I opt to clean, organize, hang out with friends, or watch TV.  Instead of spending time with God, I spend time with myself, and forsake the bonding time I could be having with Him.  My days are filled with my career, taking care of pets, maintaining a relationship and friendships, and by the end of the day, I’m utterly exhausted.  Then wake, rise, repeat—it all happens again the very next day.

Balance is so difficult to find, but so very important.  When you balance your life, it should lead you finding rest.  When you find time to rest, you find time and energy to dedicate to God, which is truly the most important thing.

Without balance, without rest, without God, we wither away.  Spiritually, mentally, emotionally. 

I’m frayed like an old rope because of the way I live my life.  And I’ve got a pretty good sense that this isn’t the life God would have me live.  I’m pretty sure there isn’t a verse that goes, “He leadeth me to utter exhaustion; he runneth me ragged.” In fact, doesn’t Jesus say something about his yoke is easy and his burden light? 

If you’re about to run out of gas, the best thing to do is slow way down to conserve fuel so that you can make it to the next station.  What I do is gun it.  Put the pedal to the metal.  No wonder God had to command us to rest.  We wouldn’t do it otherwise.  Even with the command, we don’t really do it.

We think we can drive ourselves like oxen fifty weeks a year, resurrect in a two-week vacation, then go back and do it all again.  That is madness.  My pushing and striving cut me off from the life I so desperately need.  I don’t even think to stop and ask, Is this what you’d have me do, Lord? Do you want me to paint the bathroom?  Volunteer at church?  Stay late at work?

So God sends this downpour to keep me from squandering my vacation by running like a greyhound.  He loves me too much to leave me to my own devices.

We need to be near God to hear God.  We won’t be able to listen to God when we’re focusing on all the burdens, stressors, or even successes in our lives.

Sitting down at my computer, I was exhausted by the entanglements of the busyness that were ahead of me.  It was then I opened an email from Crosswalk:

God called the light 'day,' and the darkness he called 'night.' And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day (Genesis 1:5).

“What if I told you your day began last night as the sunset—would you disagree?”

For me, it’s radical to view a day in such a way.  I really like the idea and feel like it would benefit me to do as they suggest: internalize it.  Embrace it.

In other places and cultures, the days begin with rest.  Rest, rise, work.  It’s a very different notion to think of our days running from evening to evening rather than morning to night.  As Americans, we rise, work, and rest.  This pattern keeps us from God, because work becomes our priority.

In the passing weeks I’ve become better about consciously making an effort to put rest in my life.  If I am able to reorganize my thoughts and view my days in such a way that I begin with rest instead of work, I will feel closer to God.  This is what I want.  I am aiming for rest.  I am aiming for balance.  I am aiming for God.

I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart (Psalm 40:8).

Restore me to the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me (Psalm 51:12).