Healthy Rhythm of R.E.S.T.
by Curtis McGinnis
As you read this article, I am just about to finish up my first-ever sabbatical of 40 days. However, I am writing this article before my sabbatical. Still, I trust that the preparation I have put into my sabbatical will ensure that the time away is a time of renewal, rest, and refreshment! Alongside this, my word/phrase for 2025 is “healthy rhythms,” so when the topic for this month's e2 blog was presented to me, I knew it would be a perfect chance to reflect on what I have been learning and doing in 2025 to live more like Jesus.
One of the first things I learned this year, as I sought to integrate more healthy rhythms into my life, was the need to address my need to be busy (honestly, I still really struggle with this). The most common response I hear from others when I ask how they are doing is “busy.” We wear being busy like a badge of honor and feel guilty if we are not actively doing something.
Eugene Peterson astutely said this about busyness in his book The Contemplative Pastor (1st edition, © 1993).
I am busy because I am vain. I want to appear important. Significant. What better way than to be busy? The incredible hours, the crowded schedule, and the heavy demands on my time are proof to myself-and to all who will notice-that I am important…
Such experiences affect me. I live in a society in which crowded schedules and harassed conditions are evidence of importance, so I develop a crowded schedule and harassed conditions. When others notice, they acknowledge my significance, and my vanity is fed.
I am busy because I am lazy. I indolently let others decide what I will do instead of resolutely deciding myself…
It was a favorite theme of C. S. Lewis that only lazy people work hard. By lazily abdicating the essential work of deciding and directing, establishing values and setting goals, other people do it for us; then we find ourselves frantically, at the last minute, trying to satisfy a half dozen different demands on our time, none of which is essential to our vocation, to stave off the disaster of disappointing someone.
In light of this temptation toward busyness, and in order to live out healthy rhythms, I need to REST.
R – Replenish. I need to find those things that bring me refreshment, restoration, and renewal in my life. I don’t mean just recreation, but things that actually re-create me. Recreation is supposed to be a time where we re-create ourselves into the people God made us to be, to bring our lives back to the place they were created to be in the beginning. What is it that brings us life, joy, and pleasure? One of the significant challenges of being a Type-A personality is that I enjoy and thrive on productive work. I can easily become addicted to working and need to find replenishment in other things besides this one area of my life, and I need to be careful that it doesn’t take over my life. This might be a hobby or something else that replenishes your soul. For me, this is the gym, taking walks with our dog, viewing art, and being out in nature.
E – Enter his presence. I have found that one of the significant challenges of the Christian life is keeping an ongoing awareness of God in my life. A simple devotional time doesn’t suffice to keep God central throughout my day. I need multiple reminders of God; I need to build in intentional times to become aware of him. During my doctoral program, I conducted an assessment to help people develop their awareness of God. One of the participants was a firefighter. We worked together to create the habit of utilizing the fire alarm as an opportunity to be reminded of God, to invite God into his day, and into this particular call he was about to go out on. I need these ‘alarms’ in my life as well. Maybe for you it is an actual alarm on your phone, a fixed hour of prayer, the divine hours, or using an app like Common Prayer or Lectio 365. I wear a bracelet that serves as a form of prayer beads for me, with each of the symbols providing meaning for my life.
S – Slow down. This may mean a literal 24-hour sabbath, or some time of silence and solitude. I have found that sometimes the most spiritual thing I can do is take a nap! I have written in the front of my day planner these words, which I believe I may have heard from Rick Warren: “Divert daily, withdraw weekly, abandon annually.” These are markers in the natural rhythm of my day, week, and year to slow down.
T – Trust him. Ultimately, as I live out these healthy rhythms, it forces me to trust God. I am reminded that I am meant to be a human being, not a human doing. God invites me into his work, but he has something far better for me than anything he wants from me as I live out R-E-S. I have to Trust that he can do more with my “less.” Healthy rhythms remind me of God’s provision and faithfulness and build into my life the fruit of the Spirit. I need these healthy rhythms because I know that I can’t pour out from an empty cup, and I can’t live like Jesus without them.
Between business/busyness and rest, we know which one is God-honoring. Tell a friend about whichever aspect of REST challenges you the most, then in humility, ask them for help.
