
There are people that take great pride in sharing with others how crammed their schedules are. They mask their pleasure at being busy with complaint. "I wish my life would slow down a little bit." "If only I didn't have all of this going on…" "I wish I could be one of those people who had time for a long soak in the bathtub." "Must be nice to be able to take a day off." But as soon as anyone suggests that they should rest or take a break or examine their schedule, they act like the world would fall apart if they even entertained that thought. That taking breaks would make them irresponsible and lazy.
And I get it. I've lived most of my life striving to feel important... to finally believe that I matter... that I am adding value to the world. This led me to jampack my schedule with activity. At least I didn't have time to question my worth. And being busy acted as reassurance that I must be important. If I ever gave myself permission to rest, it was because I'd worked hard enough to earn it.
Only living like this led to breakdown.
Not just a physical breakdown, although I truly believe that a hefty percentage of our health crisis in this nation could be solved if we rested properly. Many imbalances, disorders, and diseases that win the war in our bodies are able to do that because we have used up all the energy to fight on other things. Worse than my physical symptoms though were my mental, emotional, and spiritual symptoms. I truly believed that I was worth nothing to anybody, including God, when I could no longer keep up the pace that I’d been living.
See, you can live your life believing that you matter because you are always working, always giving, and never taking time to rest. It works until your body, that was designed to rest as much as it was designed to work, does what it was created to do and mercifully stops you from living this way. It's not a question of "if". It's a question of "when". At some point, you will get sick or get hurt or fall into depression or run into panic attacks or develop a chronic condition or feel numb to life or find yourself unable to do anything well anymore.
You cannot live a life that matters without the gift of rest.
Yes, I said rest is a gift. It wasn't meant to be earned. You can't ever deserve it. It was meant to be received. Rest is admitting that we are human...that it isn't us that holds the world together. Rest is trust. It's believing that we are valuable simply because we exist. We are worthy because we bear God's image and His breath is within us. We are loved because God Himself loves us.
But if we refuse rest, there is not much that God can do for our work. It will always be lacking. It won't ever be enough. We'll never feel important enough...effective enough...worthy enough...that we've done enough. We will be trapped in the cycle of striving like we're running on a treadmill. Exhausting ourselves but never getting anywhere.
If you are a person who is busy all the time, some of this might be hard to hear. It might even make you angry or want to stop reading. And I truly apologize, because I wrote it knowing that readers might come across it who base their worth on their work. I took the calculated risk of upsetting you because I believe this is that important. I remember what it felt like to try to work hard enough to be able to convince myself that I was valuable. I remember killing myself to meet all the expectations. I remember the horrible feeling if I hadn't met whatever standard someone else had for me. I remember letting my schedule run my life.
But I've learned the lesson of rest. I've learned it the hardest way, and if I can spare anyone else that kind of suffering, I will make you mad all day long. Sorry, not sorry. Because my life has changed, and I am now confident that I am just as loved, just as worthy, just as important in the hours that I am just "being" as I am when I am "doing".
And that knowledge, it fuels my work. It makes my work better. I am not so busy anymore, but I am more productive than I've ever been.
I sent an email this week to my subscribers that detailed out some basic parameters for the work/rest balance. I would love for you to get my resourcing emails because they will help you change your life. You can sign up either at www.candacerobertswriter.com or by taking the resourcing assessment over at www.candace-roberts.mykajabi.com. Rest is a whole modules in my online resourcing course because it is that important to changing your life.
I see you out there working hard, my friends, and I just want you to give yourself a break...often. You will be able to do more and be more for a longer time if you do the work of learning to rest.
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