On Resting

If you’re on staff at a church, you know that every day leading up to Sunday becomes just a little more stressful. It seems like Sundays come around all too quickly. While everyone else complains about how slow the week goes, and how long it takes for the weekend to arrive, I have the opposite feeling. That’s how it felt when I was a youth pastor, and still feels the same way as a pastor.

It’s as if there’s not enough days in the week to get everything done that I’d like to get done. On top of this, Sunday is the busiest and most stressful day of the week–the day of the week most people consider their Sabbath day of rest. For the staff person, this simply isn’t so. I’m more worn out that day than any other day of the week.

So when Monday comes, I feel like just crashing. If I do this, however, that leaves only Tuesday through Friday to be in the office and get things done for Sunday. When you already feel like there aren’t enough days in the week to get things done, it presents a challenge to take one of those days off.

For the past two weeks, I’ve decided to just take Mondays off anyway. When it comes down to it, how can I call myself a pastor if I refuse to follow one of the Ten Commandments?

This past Monday, Audra gave me Sarah while she showered and got ready for the day. That turned into Sarah falling asleep on me and not waking up until 11 am. So I had no choice but to nap with her! That meant a whole half day of doing absolutely nothing but just lying there. Part of me wanted to say: You just wasted half a day.

Another part of me wanted to say: You needed that rest, why feel guilty about taking a Sabbath?

I think it will always be a struggle to take Mondays off. This week, there were emails to be sent, phone calls to be made, etc., but I resisted and waited until Tuesday to start any of it. It was hard to do that. For a good bit of the day, those things were nagging on me in my mind…would people think I was being rude and not responding in a timely manner?

I keep coming back to my responsibility as a pastor to be a leader. I know that one of the problems in today’s society is the level of busyness that everyone is sucked into. So, if I’m really going to be a leader, I need to lead by example and take the day off regardless. So that’s what I’m committing to doing. I won’t be legalistic about it–I’m sure there will be some weeks when I will need to do some work on a Monday. But in general, I am committing to take one day off a week and do nothing.

Even though it feels weird and out of place to “waste time,” I will tell myself that those times are not wasted. They are times of refreshing, and it’s ok to make time for yourself. It feels selfish, but it really isn’t. After all, what good am I to anyone else if I get burned out?

Jesus said that man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was made for man. We do need a day of rest each week, according to Scripture, so I’m going to trust that God knew what He was doing when He instituted this day.