from the Leadership Collective email from January 2018
As we start this new year of 2018, most of us have thought about or written our goals, resolutions and dreams for the year. As leaders, we are often on overload with responsibilities and the items we are trying to fit into our schedules. With all the things we are scheduling, I highly doubt we are scheduling time of rest.
It’s interesting that God himself found it necessary to rest on the seventh day of creation. Just in case you forgot, read Genesis 2:2 for yourself: “By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.” So, if God, the creator of all things needed to rest, I believe it is necessary for us as well.
Consider these questions as you think about how you view of rest:
- Do you deliberately and regularly take time each week to rest?
- When you’re taking time to relax, do you mentally release yourself from your responsibilities?
- Are you strong enough to say no to things that would result in your falling into the trap of over-commitment?
- Have you begun to cultivate hobbies that relieve your stress and free you to be creative?
- After you have rested and gotten recharged, do you return to your responsibilities without any guilt for having taken the time off?
Resting in is not a passive activity, rather something that we must continually work towards. Our human nature does not naturally bend toward resting in God, but we have the promise that as we grow in this discipline, He will guide our paths. I myself believe that rest only comes in the form of a spa treatment. How you choose to rest is totally up to you, but doing it is vital. They key is being able to operate from your place of overflow versus your place of lack.