Leaders in Faith: The rarity of rest

Posted December 29, 2009 at 1:27 pm and filed under Faith.

By Gordon Duncan

Gordon Duncan

Gordon Duncan

Back in my college days, I spent my summers working at Camp Willow Run on Lake Gaston. Those days were incredibly hot and incredibly long. That was the time of life where you would joyfully work 16 hours days for six days a week for $100. The staff would jokingly say to one another whenever someone got tired, “Go to the ant, you sluggard. Consider her ways and be wise” (Proverbs 6:6).

Now I do know a few folks today that don’t work very hard, and that verse might be a proper rebuke; but the opposite problem is really more of what I see day in and day out. The other week, I was discussing the breakneck pace of life with a friend. We talked about what rest looked like in the day to day. It really is elusive.

Yes, in this season with football, basketball, hockey all in play, I suppose one can find rest by sitting down in front of the TV for a while, but with laptops, iPhones, and every other form of media constantly calling to us, is rest found even then?

But there is a rest, even a daily one more rhythmic to our lives than sleep, that God intends for his children. It is the rest of daily prayer and the reading of Scripture. Sadly, in the midst of our days, we have time to eat (poorly), sleep (minimally) and work (incredibly), but taking 30 minutes a day to pray and reflect is rare. And because of its rarity, so much rest is missed.

I know that some folks seek to redeem their commute each day by praying in the car and listening to sermons, which I think is much more valuable than that AM political/sports radio dreck, but even those things are not restful.

They might fill our hearts and minds with the good instead of the distracting, but doing those things in the car or while doing something else is squeezing in time with God among so many other things. There is an intended rest that God promises as his child sits in silence with his or her Bible and heart open that cannot be found anywhere else.

And so many miss out on that rest. Bad habits, lack of discipline, harried schedules and the need to be entertained all fight against sitting, reading, praying and resting.

Until we grow in these disciplines, I fear so many of us will just remain fatigued.

Gordon Duncan is a pastor at Sovereign King Church.

Related articles:

Print This Print This
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Leave a Reply

We believe that reader interaction is a valuable feature on our website and aim to foster an online community that is enriching, robust and respectful. We reserve the right to remove any comment that contains profanity or obscenity; is an advertisement for services or a solicitation of funds; contains a personal attack or a threat; or is unrelated to the story.