Rest. People have an interesting understanding of the word ‘rest’. It’s not uncommon for me to hear folks say things like, “I’ll rest when I’m dead!” While, in some instances, that is true, this is not a healthy pattern for long-term quality of life.

I’ve been chewing on the word ‘movement’ lately (as I mentioned in previous posts) and I am certainly one who likes to keep things moving. I like to observe or at least feel like things are moving in the right direction. This has inevitably led me to believe wrongly that if I take the time to rest, then things will stop moving.

If you stop to rest, things might slow down in moving. This is why it is important to have an understanding about the correlation of your efforts and the momentum that it produces. Additionally, we must understand that there will be a diminishing return on our efforts if we are physically, emotionally, and/or spiritually fatigued.

In fact, I am slowly learning that in order for me to keep things moving in the right direction, I need to rest frequently and well.

My family and I have begun setting apart Saturdays as a Sabbath. As a pastor, Sundays are often busy with church services, pastoral care meetings, and other events. So, in the simplest way that we know how, we have started blocking off around 8 to 10 hours on Saturdays where we change our rhythm, rest, read, play, and relax.

From doing this over the past year, I have observed an uptick in my capacity the other six days of the week to have the brain space to engage in the areas that are most important to keep things moving in ministry and in business. By no means do I have this down perfectly, but there is definitely movement in the right direction. (<– See what I did there?)

So, whether you are great at resting or, like most of us, struggle to rest well, then I want to encourage you that there is a great benefit to resting. Interestingly enough, our Creator modeled this truth from the beginning. Since the Lord rested, then I think we would do well to rest as well. Simple, yet, true. We need to slow down sometimes in order to speed up.

Until next time, rest well, friends!