Blog: “I’ll rest when I’m dead”

Wellness Blog – “I’ll rest when I’m dead”

I’ve heard my share of “you need to take time to rest” snippets from seminars, workshops, or friends, so I thought twice about whether I should write about taking time to rest for a wellness blog. How many more times do we need to hear that we need to rest? Well, after what I experienced last month, I thought one more time couldn’t hurt.

I was dreading the last week of June for about 3 months. You see, I knew my son had to attend college orientation in PA, my mom needed to move a truckload of stuff from NY to NC, and my daughter needed to move from SC to AL to start dental school. So, I decided to combine everything into one trip. We traveled from NC to PA for orientation, over to central NY where we took a couple of days to clean and pack a truck, down to NC to unload my mom’s things and load my daughter’s things, toss in a pulpit supply preaching at two different churches, then off to SC to load the rest of my daughter’s things from her college apartment before heading to AL. It was 44 hours of driving, and hours of loading and unloading (in a heat wave), all in 8 days. I got back home and collapsed. My body forced me to rest. Flu-like symptoms knocked me out for the next two days. My dog is a good reference to what I experienced.

Our gospel reading from Mark (July 21st) has the apostles returning from being sent out by Jesus, having “no leisure even to eat”, Jesus recognized their need for rest, but we find them back at work as Jesus shows compassion on the gathering crowds. They finish the day feeding the 5,000. We can read that story and think “See, even the apostles didn’t get time to rest before being called again. That’s no different than what I’m doing today”. Or we can read it as God’s perfect provision, exactly when and where it’s needed most. Just enough food for thousands with just enough left over to provide for the apostles as they move to the next day.

God provides us with just enough each day. When we push for too long, rest may be “forced” upon us. I used to think, “I’ll rest when I’m dead”, but I realized the foolishness of that lifestyle over the long haul. Plan your rest. Get the sleep you need each night. Slow down one day each week for a sabbath rest. Take an extended break to disconnect from the world around you at least once per year. God provides for our needs and that includes rest. Take advantage of it before it’s “forced” on you.

Rev Alan Shaw is an Assistant Pastor at Resurrection Lutheran Church in Cary, NC. He is a retired Army officer and serves as a resource for the SED and LCMS with Christian Conciliation training, workshops, and reconciliation cases. He can be reached at alan.shaw@rlcary.org for questions about Christian Conciliation.