I once heard a pastor say from the pulpit, "We carry a deeply ingrained urgency that everything depends on us." Yesterday I spent the early part of my evening making my lists of things I wanted to accomplish for work and in my home. After I finished making dinner and eating with my family, I squirreled myself away with my notes and computer so I could get a head start on the next day's assignments. But I couldn't focus. I was worried about many things.
"Did I talk long enough to my husband?"
"I should make soup for my neighbor who is struggling."
"Why haven't I heard back from so and so? I really need to finish that article!"
"Was I truly worshiping God in my prayer time today?"
"My daughter needs to join another sport. Hmm, which one should it be?"
As I continued to eat the anxious bread of toil with both my working life and my personal life, I started to notice that I was hurrying, calculating, and burdening my poor soul to the point of exhaustion. I was under the delusion that everything I needed to accomplish depended on me. Remembering a pattern Jesus was teaching me in daily living, I stopped the madness and said out loud, "Give me today the bread I need now." For a moment, I envisioned God giving me what I needed for my evening--I saw him choosing what he would generously give me from his hand. And his intention was good. I let my defenses down; I totally trusted what would come from him was what I needed.
I closed the lid to my computer, piled the books on top of one another, clicked the light off on my desk and climbed the stairs to bed. God gave me sleep. It was earlier than usual but sleep was God's daily bread to me last night. When I turned my attention to what God wanted to give me I felt vulnerable for letting go of all I wanted to accomplish. God wants us as his human creatures to trust him above all else to receive everything we need--and that includes our health, our energy and our motivation for getting things done.
Don't resist caring for your health. Get some extra rest and your spiritual growth, along with your calling, will grow.
An excellent resource on rest is a book written by Mark Buchanan called The Rest of God.
"Did I talk long enough to my husband?"
"I should make soup for my neighbor who is struggling."
"Why haven't I heard back from so and so? I really need to finish that article!"
"Was I truly worshiping God in my prayer time today?"
"My daughter needs to join another sport. Hmm, which one should it be?"
As I continued to eat the anxious bread of toil with both my working life and my personal life, I started to notice that I was hurrying, calculating, and burdening my poor soul to the point of exhaustion. I was under the delusion that everything I needed to accomplish depended on me. Remembering a pattern Jesus was teaching me in daily living, I stopped the madness and said out loud, "Give me today the bread I need now." For a moment, I envisioned God giving me what I needed for my evening--I saw him choosing what he would generously give me from his hand. And his intention was good. I let my defenses down; I totally trusted what would come from him was what I needed.
I closed the lid to my computer, piled the books on top of one another, clicked the light off on my desk and climbed the stairs to bed. God gave me sleep. It was earlier than usual but sleep was God's daily bread to me last night. When I turned my attention to what God wanted to give me I felt vulnerable for letting go of all I wanted to accomplish. God wants us as his human creatures to trust him above all else to receive everything we need--and that includes our health, our energy and our motivation for getting things done.
Don't resist caring for your health. Get some extra rest and your spiritual growth, along with your calling, will grow.
An excellent resource on rest is a book written by Mark Buchanan called The Rest of God.
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