spiritual maturity

Power in Gratitude

/ Will N. / Leave a comment

In recent years, our society has come to appreciate more and more the power of our attitudes, thoughts, and perspectives to shape our lives. We are not simply a mathematical-like result of the things that have happened to us- we are greatly shaped by the way we understand and relate internally to life’s events. We see firsthand how attitude can impact a classroom, a workplace, or a sports team.

One path to a stronger inner life is cultivating a greater sense of gratitude.

Of all the gratitude we might offer in this life, I believe the intentional decision to give thanks to God should be our starting point. I include the phrase “intentional decision” because far too often our thanksgiving to God can become unfocused and generic. While we are certainly thankful for “all our many blessings,” it will powerfully change the mental/spiritual impact of our gratitude when we make offering specific thanks to God a part of every day.

Was the sunrise beautiful this morning? Offer thanksgiving in that moment.

Did a friend receive good news about a health scare? Pause and give thanks.

Has your wayward adult child expressed a desire to return to Christ? Let your heart exalt in thanksgiving then and there.

Did the meeting at work go well with all parties leaving satisfied? Lift a word of thanks for that blessing.

In reality, it is not that we lack things to be thankful for, but that we are often not paying attention and fail to acknowledge God as the source of the good in our lives. Deciding to see His blessings and to speak thanks to Him changes our perspective for the better.

While God is to be thanked for every good gift, it is also vital that we freely offer thanks to the people around us. In the busyness of daily life, it can be easy to take for granted the presence and sacrifices of parents, spouse, children, or coworkers. We do not need special occasions to thank those who have shaped us into who we are.

Showing gratitude to those nearest to us is sometimes difficult not due to distance or lack of opportunity, but simply because we do not intentionally think about it or because it seems odd to offer thanks for what we expect from certain people. Even routine actions that we might have taken for granted at work or around the house present occasions for gratitude and thanks.

Grace and gratitude naturally work to bond people and to diffuse potential conflict. Much tension in our personal relationships could be resolved if we thanked more and criticized less.

In perhaps an odd turn, I also mention that we should offer thanks to those who oppose us. When people disagree with us or our views, we can respond with grateful appreciation for the reminder to examine our position and make any needed corrections. Even if we are in the right, such opposition provides us with more opportunities to offer grace to others. It is hard to see that sometimes the very thing that seems to harm us in the moment is an avenue to greater blessing and influence. Growth comes not from opposition itself, but from our response and our choice to see challenges as potential channels of blessing.

Living our days in a mindset that actively seeks to be thankful will change how we perceive and respond in our relationships and in the circumstances of our lives.

Gratitude possesses great spiritual power, and when we intentionally look for blessings and seek opportunities to give thanks, we will always find more of both.

Love lightens the burden

/ Will N. / Leave a comment

Photo by Timur Kozmenko – Pexels

At some point in life, we each experience a shift in perspective that changes our minds.

Perhaps we thought big vacations were overhyped until we saw the expression on our granddaughter’s face as she saw Cinderella’s castle for the first time. Perhaps we never liked a particular band until hearing a certain song that reminded us of a specific moment our childhood. Perhaps we could only see another school in a harsh spirit of rivalry until the students held a fundraiser for a personal friend who had been suddenly stricken with cancer.

There is a common thread tying together such changes of mind: when we are personally connected to a place, person, or community, we come away with a different perspective than we could ever experience only as unattached onlookers or observers. When our affections are impacted, our thoughts are reshaped as well.

Jesus spoke of His yoke being easy and His burden being light (Mt 11:28-30). When we think about the commands of Jesus- to love enemies, to forgive repeat offenders, to serve the poor and suffering, and so forth- it is easy to believe Jesus is sharing an ideal of discipleship rather than the reality most of us actually experience. How can doing the “impossible” tasks Jesus commands be in any way easy or light?

When loving relationships are placed at the center of our lives, this focus dramatically alters our response to the will of God.

As long as we see God’s will as a tax and weight upon our own desires and dreams for our lives, we will struggle to live by faith. If our obedience to God is motivated only by fear or the hope of earning greater blessing, we will not be able to sustain conformity to God’s will over time.

If, however, we accept the grace-filled gift of God’s love and seek to live in faithful response to that love, the overflow of our love serves to open our lives more and more to His will. If I am guided by obligation or fear, my actions will betray my lack of deep commitment or affection for whatever work I am involved in. No matter how faithful my actions are outwardly, the inner war of forcing myself to obey will reveal itself in my attitude, my tone, my words, and eventually my actions.

Compulsion and duty may push me to serve for a time, but my heart will not be truly invested in my discipleship. Frustration, anger, and burnout are the overflow of a heart that day by day must force itself to do what is right without the underlying motivation of genuine love and compassion. While going through the motions may keep us outwardly faithful for a season, without love for God and love for others our actions are just so much activity and noise that can never satisfy us nor please God (1 Cor 13:1-3).

When we love a job, even the hardest work seems less burdensome. When we love a person, no sacrifice seems too great to bring about their happiness. If we love our country or a cause deeply, no call of duty can come that we would not accept. In an even greater way when we come to love God, His commands become more and more a source of delight rather than dread.

When love is present, His call to serve becomes an added source of blessing rather than another burden. Such unburdened rest is found not in the absence of activity but in our daily submission as we offer Christ our brokenness and open our hearts to His blessing.

Harvest Time Is Here

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We find ourselves once again in the midst of the harvest season here in rural West Tennessee.

For the next few weeks, farmers will continue to labor to bring forth from the fields the abundance of what has grown over the last several months. We are blessed to live in an agricultural community- where we live daily in connection with both the bounty and burdens that come with being stewards of the land.

Composed in the midst of agrarian cultures, Scripture turns often to the images of planting, husbandry, and harvest as present physical realities that illustrate eternal spiritual truth. In the narratives of the Bible, sowing, tending, and reaping are near constant themes.

Like our ancestors, we come to appreciate that tomorrow’s harvest is based on yesterday’s labors.

No realistic farmer would live in the expectation of a vast harvest to come unless many hours of preparation and planting had already occurred.

While this may seem obvious to us who are familiar with the sight of planters and sprayers giving way to scenes of combines and cotton pickers as the seasons change, we often ignore this principle spiritually.

Many churches and communities look up one day to appoint new leaders or to recruit new volunteers and realize the preparation for these roles should have been initiated long before the workers were needed.

What holds true in our churches holds true in our own hearts.

If we are unwilling to cultivate our lives faithfully, we should not expect the most fruitful harvest.

God can, and does, bring forth unexpected blessings, but our responsibility to plant faithfully and tend consistently in His kingdom today is His appointed way to prepare the harvest we long to see in the future.

As with physical farming, we also acknowledge that a given season’s harvest is impacted by many factors- some we can control and some we cannot.

Sickness, economics, and the decisions of others can all powerfully affect the outward results of our lives. Despite seeking to be faithful and to lean into God’s leading, we sometimes face tough seasons of loss, hurt, or personal challenges.

Faithful living, like faithful farming, comes by adjusting as best we can to these circumstances we can never fully predict.

The life of faith requires the daily choice to keep trusting and keep working in spite of the unforeseen hardships we face. As believers, we rest in God’s faithfulness, and from this assurance, we labor in love to share His gifts and to bless others day by day.

We also come to understand that the opportunity to harvest must be seized when the time is right.

If we panic and gather too soon, we pick a crop that is immature, not fully formed, and suffer loss. If we wait for perfect conditions to arrive, we risk a crop that is too dry, water-damaged, insect-compromised, or impacted by the coming of winter.

It is the goal of the farmer, as well as the active disciple, to develop an understanding of different soils, seeds, moisture, geography, and weather conditions, and to come to appreciate the “just right” moment to gather in the crop.

When the moment is right, it becomes a race against time and the factors of life to garner in the crop while it will yield the best result.

Such a sense of timing, both in farming and in discipleship, is best gained by imitating those who have gone before and learning through our own experiences over a lifetime of faithful living.

Humanity’s roots in farming are ancient, but the applications we can gain spiritually from observing the physical harvest are as fresh as a crisp fall morning.

May we not neglect to appreciate and value what God’s created order reveals about our own hearts.

Come aside and rest awhile…

/ Will N. / Leave a comment

We have all experienced situations where we could sense the momentum of the moment was shifting dramatically.

The excitement swelling up in a crowd at a concert when the first chords of the band’s hit song are struck. The rush taking over in a crowded gym as one team enters the zone where they can do nothing wrong and the other can seem to do nothing to stop them. The shift moving through a tense meeting when one idea rises to the top and soon carries the conversation.

In such moments of excitement and power, we often feel both a sense that we cannot let the opportunity pass and also a feeling that we are caught up in something far bigger than ourselves.

I believe wanting to act on momentum while still appreciating the real danger of being overwhelmed by activity was an issue in the early church.

These believers were truly on the cutting edge of a movement that in the span of one lifetime “turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6), and yet most were common, everyday people without formal training in either theology or ministry (Acts 4:13).

It would have been easy to get caught up in the momentum that accompanied the miracles and mission work and to lose their grounding as servants of Jesus.

In our own time, we do not have to look hard to see men and women committed to God’s work who have become battered by stress, overwhelmed by burnout, and collapsed under moral or relational failure.

How did Jesus respond during His earthly ministry when His disciples brought news of the skyrocketing momentum and constant activity in their ministries?

In Mark 6, Jesus commissions His apostles to go out in pairs to teach, heal, and share the good news in the power of the Spirit. Almost immediately, these efforts yield huge results as the sick, possessed, and hurting are brought to them and restored- opening the door to their preaching and teaching.

The crowds are flocking to receive blessing and hear the truth. When they report back to Jesus later in the same chapter (Mk 6:30), they relate to Jesus all that is happening through their teaching and miracle-working.

In the midst of a thronging crowd so dense they did not even have time to break to eat, Jesus says, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest awhile.” (Mk 6:31)

In a moment of great momentum and excitement, Jesus calls for them to pull back and to rest and refocus.

This strategy is certainly opposite of what we would expect of a charismatic leader or any public figure today.

Rather than pushing them to bigger numbers and pressing into deeper and deeper activity, Jesus discerns that their incredible report calls for intentional rest.

The crowds can, and in fact do, keep coming, but Jesus acknowledges that there is a danger in becoming overextended- even in the best of all possible causes.

Connection with Jesus Himself, rather than the signs, the wonders, and even the doctrine, proved to be the essential element needed to maintain and grow health and holiness among the first disciples.

I would suggest that the same is true for us as followers of Christ today.

Momentum is a blessing, but it can never be allowed to become the primary factor in building and sustaining a ministry or a movement.

Spiritual maturity and deep relationships will always sustain us longer than passing momentum and exciting circumstances.

Momentum yields powerful fruits and blesses us in certain seasons, but our long-term connections with Christ, Scripture, and fellow believers provide the roots that continually equip us with the subtle strength we will need for a lifetime of faith.

Where Wisdom Waits

/ Will N. / Leave a comment

Seeing hundreds of photos of local children returning to school last week, I could not help but recall teachers who impacted my own life.

Some taught students effectively due to high doses of both energy and engagement.

Others were dedicated to their particular subject and taught with a contagious intensity.

As I grew older, I came to see the power of a teacher who not only could provide correct information but who could push students to ask deeper questions. Knowledge of the correct information is key, but sharing that information in a way that causes students think more fully is a mark of our wisest teachers.

While knowledge and wisdom are at times parallel and often intertwine, the ability to apply what we know to how we live ultimately passes beyond “just the facts” and into the realm of true wisdom.

Knowledge tells us what we have in front of us, but wisdom helps us decide how to live faithfully with whatever we have.

Scripture reveals that true wisdom comes from God. We are reminded that if we lack wisdom, we should ask, and God will give it generously (James 1:5).

Often in life, we become frustrated as if attempting to put together an elaborate toy or piece of furniture. It looks simple enough, and so we race ahead soon finding ourselves lost in the complex assembly. If we keep at this task long enough, we realize (or perhaps are told by an onlooker) that we should have read the directions first.

Spiritually, we often do the same.

Rather than seeking to know God’s will and asking for the wisdom to live each day, we rush ahead and only ask for help once the trouble hits. Such an attitude may seem like independence, but our repeated refusals to ask for help only further prove our lack of godly wisdom and genuine humility.

The Bible also teaches that wisdom comes not only directly from God but from the counsel of others who have faced the trials of life before us. A foolish person believes he is the first person to ever face his particular problem, but a wise person seeks out the advice of others (Prov 12:15).

A lot of us want to go our own way and to do things according to our own understanding. In some areas of life such confidence can be a blessing, but we are foolish if we allow self-confidence to prevent us from seeking out the wisdom others have gained through time and experience.

Wisdom understands that learning from others shows strength rather than weakness.

A person without wisdom is a great waster of time.

This individual sees the future either as too immediate to change or too far away to be concerned about.

When God’s Word tells us to walk in wisdom, one aspect of a such a life is “redeeming the time” (Eph 5:15-17). One who possesses wisdom understands that time is precious and will seek to make the most of each moment.

Knowledge can give us the facts we need to act, but wisdom tells us when action is needed and what action is best.

Knowledge can be sought, processed, and quantified while wisdom is received through prayer, discerned through conversations, and demonstrated through faithful actions.

May we come to appreciate how much we need not only to know the right answers, but to ask better questions and to faithfully apply godly wisdom to our lives.

“For What Is Your Life?”

/ Will N. / Leave a comment

In speaking of the brevity of life, James 4:14 offers this insight,

“For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.”

Few of us who have lived long in this life would deny this truth.

One day we are nervous about our first day of school and the next we are watching our own grandchildren walk across the stage at their graduations.

Despite knowing that even the longest life is brief, we often live an unexamined life under the impression that we will have more time.

While we cannot know the exact length of our days or the challenges they will bring, we can and should choose the mindset we embrace as we move through our lives.

When looking at the issues facing our world, some will choose to live a constantly critical life.

There is certainly much wrong in our world- destructive weather and tragic accidents, crime and violence, corruption and injustice, disease and spiritual darkness.

All of us who are paying attention see these challenges and these hardships, but we consider the many bad situations side-by-side with the good that exists around us.

The one who chooses the critical life ends up actually wanting to be cynical and bitter so the truth of his own judgment proves true- and he comes to discount any aspect of reality that would prove there is good left and hope alive.

To paraphrase the folk song, this person sees what he wants to see and disregards the rest.

Such a critical life not formed in a moment, but by many small negatives that compound over time.

Not everyone will choose this cynical criticism, but many of us will choose to lead highly compartmentalized lives.

In order survive in an often harsh world, we divide our larger lives into smaller sections and parts that, at least in theory, can be managed more easily.

We may have “work life,” “family life,” “school life,” “church life,” and so on. We come to think we can keep these areas of life from overlapping too much, and we approach each day with the idea of divide and conquer.

We often come to realize that while this compartmentalization may be efficient for a season, it becomes an unfulfilling and often conflicted way to live.

We may do a lot, but nothing is done fully or well.

If our compartments conflict, we end up living with more self-created tension and anxiety.

Amid those who are critical of others or so compartmentalized that they struggle to be genuine, there are those who will choose a committed, Christ-centered life.

Both the commitment and the focus on Christ are vital to those who take this path.

On the surface, a committed life of any kind may sound positive, but it is only better if our guiding commitments are set upon the right things.

Being Christ-centered is essential, but we must be centered in Him and committed to Jesus over the course of time- not just in the excited enthusiasm that often accompanies conversion.

To be both committed and Christ-centered will form the lasting components that shape a faithful life.

Life is brief, and yet the life we choose shapes not only our own souls but impacts the many lives that intersect our own.

We cannot know what will befall us or how soon our vapor will vanish, but we can commit and center our days in the One who not only knows our paths but values our lives far more than we can ever fully understand.

“It’s just so unfair!”

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“We just want things to be fair for everybody.”

How many times have we heard a parent, teacher, coach, or politician express the idea that fairness in life is not only desirable, but an achievable goal in a given situation?

Certainly, if we are talking about people having an opportunity to succeed or a chance to follow their dreams, fairness may be an ideal to strive toward. Day to day, however, we quickly realize that challenges- some we actively cause and many we do not- impact access to opportunities and create an uneven path to fairness in many areas of life.

In the midst of our world’s clamor to be fair, Christians are called to be grace-filled, forgiving, and compassionate.

Often when those around us demanding things should “just be fair” are actually seeking advantage for themselves, but believers are reminded that success for the Christian is not defined in terms of worldly status but in faithfulness to Christ. As we live in a world focused on gaining more and promoting the fear driven by perceived scarcity, disciples are to live a life that is open-handed and gracious to all.

This attitude of grace is not formed from our natural inclinations or under the influence of our dominant culture. Grace toward others can only be truly extended by those who have experienced God’s grace in their own lives.

Believers know the world is not fair- and we should be extremely thankful for it.

Because of Christ’s gracious gift, we are relieved of the massive burden of our sin. The Person who was not responsible for the world’s brokenness comes to us in lovingkindness and takes our hurts and harm upon Himself. If life was fair, the Bible (and humanity itself) would end in Genesis 3 with the first sin, but because of God’s unfair grace, we are given another opportunity to start again. This scenario of sin, hurt, grace, and hope repeats across the millennia of Scripture as well as in our own lives each day.

We should not long for fairness from God- in the light of His perfection, who could honestly claim we want what we deserve?

It is so hard to admit mistakes and confess our inability to sort out our lives in our own strength.

As we feel that we are beginning to grow in grace, the frustrations of life seem to rise in response. God’s grace is abounding, but so often we limit our own ability to share in this abundance. Rather than freely sharing in the divine bounty that is available, we focus instead on defining the terms of grace and building borders around God’s intended blessings.

We often give the impression that if God’s grace gets out of control, the lack of boundaries will cheapen our own bond with Him.

Until we come to acknowledge and appreciate God’s grace toward us, we will continue to struggle to share His love to those who need it most.

Ultimately, I must resolve to let God be God and to accept both His love for me and to appreciate His grace toward others.

We are to be ambassadors for Christ and ministers of reconciliation rather than gatekeepers of grace.

The message of the gospel is that we receive God’s grace we could never earn rather than the wage of death that our sin deserves.

Through Christ, all people are offered the opportunity to share in the riches of grace- it is not fair, but it truly is good news.

Intentional Practices in Distraction

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We often find ourselves in seasons of distraction.

While we may be moving rapidly through full, busy days, we find our actual focus dulled by the summer heat, numerous activities, major health challenges, or unending preparations for upcoming events.

Distraction becomes a subtle destroyer- we may still get everything done, but little is done well or enjoyed fully as we take on more and more.

Even if we recognize this problem, we often do not want to burden others with our challenges, and because of this social silence, we tend to think we are the only ones distressed by the busy pace. In our desire to avoid awkwardness, we actually create more opportunities for our distress to grow and potentially lead to lasting spiritual harm.

Unless we acknowledge the challenge, we cannot employ intentional practices to overcome the fatigue and frustration created by our distractions.

In distracted seasons, we need to recenter our lives with intentional prayer.

In overwhelming busyness, it is difficult to take time to truly pray. The idea of setting aside time to pray in the midst of an already hectic life seems counterintuitive.

“Why pray when I could be doing?” “Rather than a certain time, can’t I just pray as I move through my busy day?” “Isn’t spontaneous prayer really more heart-felt anyway?”

While we can pray at any time in any place, Scripture reveals that some spiritual victories come only in response to a disciplined life (Mt 17:19-21). It is Satan’s design to disconnect us from God, our Source of spiritual strength.

As the saying goes, if the devil cannot make us bad, he will make us busy.

When we move to pray, we are taking a step toward returning our relationship with God to the center of our lives.

It is in life’s most hectic times when we feel least like praying that we often most need to pray.

We keep track of the most important appointments/events in our lives. We mark down what we do not want to miss- doctors’ appointments, weddings, reunions, recitals, concerts, and ballgames. It is not that we would always forget, but that we want to be certain to prioritize the most important things and set that time apart. What could be more important than a daily appointment with the Lord that we prepare for and commit to keeping amid the busyness of life?

A set time of prayer need not be seen as a surrender to legalism, but simply a personal discipline that seeks to shape our busy days with more time purposefully spent with God.

Along with prayer, we need to reengage in intentional fellowship with others.

While a restored connection to God through prayer is essential, we also need the support of other believers as we seek to establish balance and boundaries in our lives.

As human beings, we are created for life in community- both socially and spiritually.

In times when our own fire is dimmed and dying out, we can draw warmth and light from the believers gathered around us. We may feel like we are the only ones struggling, but when we give voice to our fears, we find others too are overwhelmed by life’s hardships. Such honesty serves as a gateway to the strength that comes only when fellow disciples join together to listen, pray, and bear one another’s burdens.

In Christ, we have access to our Heavenly Father and the comfort of the Spirit throughout our lives- even in seasons of increased busyness and distraction.

In the face of life’s distractions, we can choose to embrace the practices of intentional prayer and active fellowship in order to refocus on God and draw strength from the enduring bond we share in Christ.

Battling Bird Vision

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Our house resounded with a peculiar thud throughout the day.

The newly-resident bluebirds had begun to announce their presence by repeatedly slamming into our large glass windows.

While millions of birds die each year in the United States by accidentally flying into high-rise buildings, the springtime phenomena we experienced is more complex- the vigilant bird sees its own reflection in the glass, perceives its image to be a rival, and attempts to drive away the interloper- all the while, the bird is actually attacking its own mirrored self.

While birds do not have the ability to tell a genuine enemy from their own reflection, people are often guilty of similar confusion.

When we cannot see ourselves truly, we tend to respond with aggression toward any and all perceived threats- never realizing that our perception, rather than reality, is often the actual adversary.

Such a distorted mindset creates a spiritual haze over our lives. What do we miss when we embrace this limited, bird-like-blindness approach to life?

One great danger to our vision is forgetting that our identity is to flow from who we are in Christ. In Jesus, our identity is more fully realized by seeking to live out the faith we claim. Scripture notes that to look into God’s Word for wisdom and then to immediately return unchanged to our old lives makes us like a man who looks in a mirror, turns away, and immediately forgets his appearance (James 1). Instead, we are to look at Christ and then look inward adapting our lives to His image. As disciples, we must die to self-focus and allow a faithful reflection of Christ to be seen in us (Gal 2:20).

Beyond a spiritual identity crisis, we can also find ourselves moving through our days without a clear purpose. Drawing on the imagery of ancient Greek sports, Paul speaks of the danger of not having a goal as we go through life (1 Cor 9). Like an undisciplined athlete, the believer who does not align his life with the ultimate goal of growing in Christ will fail to develop either spiritual strength or skill- like an ineffective boxer jabbing wildly into the air.

Adding more activity is no guarantee of progress, yet intentionally growing in focused disciplines can us help to clarify our goals, prevent wasted energy, and move forward.

Once we recognize ourselves and our goals, we must avoid the mistake of failing to finish strong.

In his last letter, Paul signs off with words that draw a contrast between Demas and Mark. Paul’s former coworker Demas has forsaken him while Mark, who Paul initially doubted, has proven himself a valuable minister (2 Tim 4).

Paul notes his own calling, and the fact he has been faithful to the end. If not focused on finishing well, we risk leaving a life of faithfulness behind to chase the distractions of the present world.

Far too often when encountered with life’s busy seasons, our hearts begin to drift.

Not recognizing this tendency in ourselves, we can end up disoriented and step away from our solid grounding in Christ.

Ultimately, the downfall of our backyard bluebirds results from a terrible illusion- they fear an outward enemy when the real danger is the self-inflicted harm arising from their aggressive, disoriented state.

Sadly, this distorted experience often marks the lives of believers- we fear persecution when our own distractions and disillusionment are almost always greater dangers.

May God grant us the grace to see ourselves clearly, to focus our faith, and to claim the reality of our connection to Christ as the basis of our hope.

Come aside and rest awhile…

/ Will N. / Leave a comment

On reaching another birthday, I am realizing my physical resilience is not what it was years ago. Two decades ago, as a young minister, I could get up early, stay up late, and do a lot in between with seemingly little physical cost. While we often experience decreasing physical energy as we age, spiritual fatigue is a more subtle danger facing us in our constantly overscheduled world.

We live in an age of constant rush. Advances in technology have made daily tasks easier/faster, but rather than taking more time to rest and engage with friends and family, we have allowed cultural pressures to convince us to add even more busyness to our lives.

There never seem to be enough hours in the day or days in the week to accomplish all of our plans. We constantly bemoan our lack of time, but in reality, we are often choosing to take on more than is healthy for us- both physically and spiritually.

Those walking through addiction recovery understand that the danger of relapse dramatically increases during times of stress- hunger, loneliness, fatigue, shifting schedules, or relationship crises. Just as acute stress can pose dangers, potential pitfalls abound when we continually chase the idol of busyness.

In our constant pressing forward, we invite damage to our health, our relationships, and ultimately, our connection with God.

Blinded by busyness, we often refuse to heed the warning signs of overwork and overstimulation.

If we do not intentionally seek rest, we will unintentionally break down under the constant strain of our schedules.

This truth is not only a pillar of contemporary self-help books, the importance of rest is a principle deeply rooted in Scripture.

While murder and adultery are condemned in the Ten Commandments, weekly rest is commanded (Exodus 20:8-11). This detailed idea of Sabbath as a day of rest looks far different than most of the weekend rituals we practice today.

On the very day God’s Old Testament people were told to abstain from all work, modern believers often attempt to frantically jam more activity into the end of our week.

On Sunday when the New Testament saints gathered for longer periods worship (Acts 20:7), we often rush through our worship (or skip it entirely) in order to pack in baby showers, bridal teas, ball practices, family visits, grocery shopping, and preparations for the upcoming week.

The concept of the “Sunday scaries,” the idea that the anticipation of the coming week’s overwhelming busyness invades our day of rest and overwhelms our peace of mind, is a reality for many today.

Surrounded by our culture of hustle, we each must find ways to rest- even as we live in the midst of such external busyness. This need for grounding calm in a chaotic world is nothing new for believers.

In the midst of trauma and unrest, David strengthened himself in God (1 Sam 23:16). In the midst of persecution and physical danger, God provided sleep and food for Elijah (1 Kgs 19:4-7).

In the gospels, Jesus withdrew and prayed alone with His Father- both as a regular practice (Lk 5:16) and at especially critical moments (Lk 6:12-13). In the midst of a period of exceedingly fruitful ministry that proved overwhelming to the disciples, Jesus invited them to pull back, regroup, and rest (Mk 6:31).

If Moses, David, Elijah, Peter, and even Jesus needed times of rest and renewal, we are foolish to think we can just keep running at full speed without disastrous consequences.

Mature believers must come to recognize the self-deception we embrace whenever we trust our own strength and proceed to pile on more and more busyness wearing ourselves thin with constant activity.

Whenever human ability alone is trusted as the source of spiritual strength, failure is certain.

We must be willing to set our minds on the things of the Spirit (Rom 8:6), and then intentionally seek the rest and renewal that can only come through time spent in God’s presence.