I'm not totally sure, but my best guess is that between my job at the hospital and the time I put in for the church, that I'm around 70 hours per week. So, the next logical question was, "How do you maintain that and not get burned out." Well, the answer to that has two parts. (1) Understand it's a season (2) Rest.
(1) It's a season. Even with regular rest, I could not maintain my current schedule indefinitely. My wife and I are making plans for it to change inside of this year. What the specific changes are, we're still not completely decided on. But, it helps immensely to know that the fatigue I feel is only for a season and there is light at the end of the tunnel.
(2) Rest. This is the bigger of the two . . . by far, in my opinion. Weekly sabbath rest. From Friday afternoon to Saturday night, I just don't do anything. I hang out with my family. I don't work on my sermon. I don't check emails. I don't blog. I don't meet with people about church stuff. It's a sabbath. It's pure rest. And it's a command from God.
Why would God command such a thing? Because he knows that we're just foolish and arrogant enough to think we can make everything in life happen . . . if we just push a little harder. But when we take that weekly sabbath rest, we're not only resting, but we're inviting God to work on our behalf and do the things we can't possibly accomplish.
Sabbath is a counter-intuitive principle just like tithing is counter-intuitive. When we tithe, we see that God can do more with 90% of our money than we could do with 100%. When we take a weekly sabbath rest, we see that God can accomplish more in 6 days that we could in 7. If you're not taking a sabbath, you're setting yourself up for burn-out. Don't fall into the "I can get just a little more done" trap. You need to rest.
1 comment:
So true J! Just reading through a couple of your blogs and this one is HUGE! That day to rest not only shows us how much God can do and keeps us from getting burnt out, but it keeps us (and our Families)from resenting the giftings and calling he has given us. There is so much I would have done differently if I was only able to get beyond MYSELF! Thanks J for the good reminder to take that day off. love ya man.
Post a Comment