Why Your Body, Mind, and Soul Are Begging You to Stop Working
"Tumble out of bed and I stumble to the kitchen, pour myself a cup of ambition..." Sound familiar? If those lyrics from the late, great Dolly Parton describe your average weekday, you're not alone. As Dolly herself put it, "it's enough to drive you crazy if you let it." So how do we avoid letting work drive us crazy? The answer might be older than you think.
The Real Cost of Overworking
Before we talk solutions, let's be honest about the problem. What are the actual consequences of overworking?
If you work too much, you're not getting enough sleep. Long work hours make you feel more stressed. Employers expect us to respond to emails and texts at any time of day; it's hard to disconnect. More time working means less time for physical activity or a good diet. We are literally sacrificing our health by working more.
When you combine lack of sleep with high levels of stress and poor physical health, do you know what you get? A 33% greater risk of having a stroke and a 40% greater risk of developing coronary heart disease. Were those high on your career goals?
Work-life balance is a modern concept that helps us try to sort out the demands of professional life, personal life, and family life. It's not perfect, but it's a start. Sabbath can help us find the balance between the work God has created us to do and the rest required to keep ourselves physically, mentally, and spiritually healthy.
What God Actually Says About Rest
Part of God's plan for work was always the idea of rest. God designed us to work, but also to take a break from work, what God calls Sabbath. In fact, it made God's top ten list. In Exodus 20:8-11, straight from the Ten Commandments, God says:
"Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work... For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."
This command is rooted in the creation story itself. In Genesis 2:2-3, we read: "By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy."
So did the all-powerful Creator of the universe need a nap? Of course not. The Hebrew word used here for rest is shabbat, which means "to rest" but also means "to cease or to stop." God purposefully and intentionally stopped working after he finished creation. God rests in order to celebrate the work that has been done.
Four Powerful Purposes of Rest
1. When We Rest, We Reflect the Image of God
God completed his big project, stopped, rested, and celebrated his work. We, on the other hand, are usually rushed from one project to the next, often without a chance to rest or appreciate what we've achieved. God didn't need to rest, but we do. And God wanted to show us how important rest is by modeling it himself.
2. When We Rest, We Proclaim Our Faith in God
In Mark 2:23-24, Jesus and his disciples were walking through grainfields on the Sabbath. The disciples were hungry and began picking grain to eat. The Pharisees confronted Jesus, accusing the disciples of working on the Sabbath. Jesus pushed back, reminding them that God provides for those in need.
We proclaim faith in God by trusting his provision. Let's say I can make a certain amount of money by working five days, imagine what I could make working seven! But by stopping our work for regular Sabbath periods of rest, we are trusting in God to provide for our needs. We hold back our greed and our desire to acquire more by saying, "I don't need to work every moment of every day. God will take care of my needs if I take care of myself by resting."
3. When We Rest, We Enhance Our Relationships with God and Others
At the end of that encounter in Mark 2:27-28, Jesus clarifies the whole point: "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."
What was Jesus doing on the Sabbath? Hanging out with his friends. Sabbath rest is for our benefit, for us to fellowship, to have time to spend with one another. If the Sabbath is only about keeping rules, you completely miss God's intention for rest. Sabbath rest enhances both our relationship with God and our relationships with one another.
4. When We Rest, We Are Renewed Physically and Spiritually
Back in Genesis 2:3, we see that God blessed the seventh day. The first six days God called "good" or "very good," but no other day does God bless in this specific way. The climax of creation is the seventh day of rest. Seven is a Biblical number that signifies wholeness and completion. The ultimate goal of work itself is not more work, but rather well-earned rest.
The writer of Hebrews puts it this way in Hebrews 4:9-11: "There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest."
When we take time to rest now, we are reminding ourselves of the great Sabbath rest that is promised for us in the life beyond this physical, earthly existence.
What Do You Want to Look Back On?
An Australian nurse who specializes in end-of-life care named Bronnie Ware wrote a book called The Top Five Regrets of the Dying. One of the top items on the list? "I wish I hadn't worked so hard." The other four are equally sobering: I wish I'd let myself be happier. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
I doubt that anyone on their deathbed has ever said, "You know, I had a good life, but I really wish I would have worked more."
Putting It Into Practice
So how do you actually implement Sabbath rest in your life? Here's a simple, practical pattern, three time-based strategies that are easy to remember:
Divert Daily. Every day, take some time to rest and relax. Leave work stuff at work as much as possible. Do something you enjoy: read, work on a creative project, have a good meal. And don't just binge-watch Netflix or scroll on your phone; that's not really resting. Also include spiritual practices like prayer and devotional or Bible reading.
Withdraw Weekly. Try not to let your weekends or days off be filled with checking emails or worrying about the upcoming week. As much as possible, take time to enjoy family and friends, enjoy God's creation, and make time for worship and fellowship with other Christians. Focus on your relationships with God and with others.
Abandon Annually. This one requires some planning. Try to plan a day specifically for yourself once a year with the purpose of intentionally reflecting on what God has done in your life. The goal is simple: rest, reflect, and reset.
So often, we let ourselves become enslaved to our careers or our employers' expectations of us. Rest gives us the opportunity to disconnect from daily stress, stay relationally connected with our friends and family, and say "no" to the expectations of this world, committing ourselves to living as citizens of God's Kingdom.
The Sabbath was made for you. It's time to use it.
Reflection
Take a few quiet moments to sit with these questions honestly before God:
Be honest with yourself. Are you "barely gettin' by," running from one obligation to the next without ever truly stopping to rest or celebrate what God has accomplished through you?
Rest is an act of faith. When you skip rest to work more, what does that reveal about what you truly trust to provide for your needs, God or your own effort? What would it look like to trust God enough to stop?
Jesus said the Sabbath was made for you. What relationships, with God or with the people you love, have suffered because you've allowed work to consume the time meant for rest and connection?
When you reach the end of your life, what do you want to look back on? What needs to change now to make that possible?
Prayer
Creator God, I confess that I have let the pace of this world set the pace of my life. I have sacrificed sleep, health, relationships, and time with you on the altar of productivity. Forgive me for trusting in my own effort more than in your provision. Teach me what it means to reflect your image not only in my work, but in my rest. Give me the courage to say no to the expectations of this world and yes to the life you have designed for me. Renew me, physically, mentally, and spiritually, as I learn to enter the rest you have prepared. In Jesus' name, Amen
