What Rest Has To Do With Work
We all know what it is like to be busy. To have deadlines. To be taxed, mentally, spiritually, and physically because of work. And this is to be expected, one of the curses after the fall was related to work. Genesis 3:
cursed is the ground because of you;
in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread
Living in a post-fall world means work will be consuming and difficult. But our gracious God, even as we grapple with the consequences of our sin (curse on work), has given us grace. The grace of rest.
rest is a heart issue
In Tim Keller’s book, Every Good Endeavor, Keller speaks to the relationship between work, rest, and our view of God:
There is a symbiotic relationship between work and rest. Of course we know this at one level. We get away from work in order to replenish our bodies and minds. Resting, or practicing Sabbath, is also a way to help us get perspective on our work and put it in its proper place. Often we can’t see our work properly until we get some distance from it and reimmerse ourselves in other activities. Then we see that there is more to life than work. With that perspective and rested bodies and minds, we return to do more and better work.
But the relationship between work and rest operates at a deeper level as well. All of us are haunted by the work under the work—that need to prove and save ourselves, to gain a sense of worth and identity. But if we can experience gospel-rest in our hearts, if we can be free from the need to earn our salvation through our work, we will have a deep reservoir of refreshment that continually rejuvenates us, restores our perspective, and renews our passion.
…
Anyone who cannot obey God’s command to observe the Sabbath is a slave, even a self-imposed one. Your own heart, or our materialistic culture, or an exploitative organization, or all of the above, will be abusing you if you don’t have the ability to be disciplined in your practice of Sabbath. Sabbath is therefore a declaration of our freedom. It means you are not a slave—not to your culture’s expectations, your family’s hopes, your medical school’s demands, not even to your own insecurities. It is important that you learn to speak this truth to yourself with a note of triumph—otherwise you will feel guilty for taking time off, or you will be unable to truly unplug.
-Every Good Endeavor - (You can find the larger excerpt of this quote, which I would encourage you to read, here, which is where I originally found it)
There will be times we must work late, work weekends, or pull 24-hour shifts for seasons. But those should be exceptions, not norms. Rest allows you to do more work, not less. Rest allows you to connect with God. Rest allows you to remember you are more than a worker, you are loved and valued by God. His value of you is not tied to your ability to produce.
Learning to rest,
Josh.
