Summer - Rest or Rust?
Summer is a time of unique opportunities and temptations! I’d like to talk about both today, with the hope of encouraging you to walk with God in the coming months, to keep your fellowship with Him close, and to allow Him to accomplish the things He desires in your life. The message is a practical one, sometimes light-hearted in tone, but totally serious in content!
∙ What do you like best about the Summer time?
∙ What do you least care for about Summer time?
For most Americans, Summer is associated with vacations. But that might be changing.....
ABC News reports that “this year an estimated 51 million Americans – more than one-third of the workforce – will not use all their vacation days. In what the company calls "vacation deprivation," each worker will pass up an average of three days off. Other workers face a different challenge. Almost 1 in 4 Americans have no paid vacation and no paid holidays, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. In a new report, "No-Vacation Nation," the group notes that the US remains the only advanced country that does not guarantee workers a paid vacation.” - www.abcnews.go.com
Do you realize that rest from our work is an imperative?
It not those who work hardest that accomplish the most.
To be most effective, we must work intelligently.
Stephen Covey, in his book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, tells a parable about two men who went out to chop wood. One of them kept at it all day working very hard but, as the day passed, his production dropped. His colleague who was working along side of him ended the day with a significantly larger pile of wood, despite the fact that he stopped working periodically. When questioned how he had more to show for his work, he said he needed time to rest and to sharpen his axe!
We need to grasp the godly principle of work and rest!
∙ We will not be the best that God wants us to be if we are drudges who are constantly at work.
∙ Nor will be effective for the Lord, if we are always looking for the easy church, passing responsibilities to someone else, and playing at life.
Both extremes - all work or all play - destroy a person!
∙ A person who is consumed by his work, becomes fatigued, unbalanced, a perfectionist, critical of others, and generally unpleasant to be around.
∙ A lazy person who refuses to pull his weight in the world is repugnant - often self-absorbed, and a parasite on society.
At very beginning of the Bible, the importance of balancing work and renewal is illustrated by God’s own model. Genesis tells us that He worked for six days, then He rested on the 7th! His creative work was laid aside and he enjoyed what He had accomplished.
This principle was made a part of the Law of Moses, which governed God’s people for thousands of years! In the ten commandments, the Lord says — (Exodus 20:8-11, NIV)
“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Work, then rest - that’s the pattern.
Christians - we have an obligation to God to WORK HARD!
I love what we learn about work from a familiar passage in the New Testament.
Turn with me to Ephesians 2. (Pew Bible 1819) READ vv. 9-10
We are God’s workmanship! That translation of the Greek NT work, poiema, does not quite grasp the entire concept in the passage. The NLT is better - we are God’s masterpiece! God worked to create you and me. He worked to save us from sin, to grant us new life, to defeat the Devil’s attempts to destroy us. And His work is a thing of beauty - a masterpiece!
A person who keeps work and rest in balance, who sees the ‘why’ behind the ‘what’ in his work, will do the best work possible. He will understand that he is to be like God, whose work is making masterpieces!
ill - Recently I employed a brother to build a deck on my home. When I would go home from the office, and watch him work, I’d see him lay down his tools periodically to step back and take in the whole project.
He would look at it from this way and that, measuring, adjusting.
“What do you think, Jerry? he would ask me.
I could tell that he was not just ‘building a deck.’
He was creating something in which he was putting all the skills he had. He was taking pride in what
his hands were creating.
Paul speaks to the issue of work in Ephesians 6. His words are specifically addressed to ‘slaves,’ but they are applicable to all of us who do work for others, for a wage. He says, "Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. As slaves of Christ, do the will of God with all your heart. Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will reward each one of us for the good we do." (Ephesians 6:6-8, NLT)
Christian - we must, for God’s sake, learn to REST WELL!
Our times of rest can be misused.
There are three words that describe the way that some indulge themselves in Summer breaks -
Sloth, Skin, Spend!
True rest is not found in idleness!
The wisdom collected in Proverbs speaks many times to the issue of ‘slothfulness.’ The word used in many Bible translations in place of sloth is laziness! Solomon wrote – "The fool sits back and takes it easy, His sloth is slow suicide. " (Ecclesiastes 4:5, The Message) In another passage, he observes – "Laziness leads to a sagging roof; idleness leads to a leaky house." (Ecclesiastes 10:18, NLT)
Just “doing nothing” is not the best way to rest!
True rest is not found in feeding the flesh!
We live in a culture that is highly sensual, with a great value placed on creature comforts, physical beauty, and pleasure. This Summer many will chase gratification of their appetites, thinking that if they eat fine foods, feast their eyes on beautiful bodies, or find a place of ultimate indulgence, that they will be fulfilled. But it isn’t so!
Indulgence simply creates greater hunger! Our appetites are never satisfied by food, drink, or sex alone! Why? Because we are not just a body, we are spiritual beings. If we ignore the spirit, while pampering the skin - our greatest hunger will be left unsatisfied!
One of the reasons so many of us come home from our times away exhausted, is precisely because we focus ourselves on satisfying the wrong set of longings! And I am not talking about doing things that are morally wrong, either. We simply neglect the more important parts of our beings, because we are trained to think more of our skin than our spirit! Talk with anyone who has taken a trip somewhere to serve, where they have spent themselves and their energy in meeting some human need for the sake of Christ, and you will almost always find a much more satisfied person!
True rest is not found in spending!
Spending great sums of money can provide us with momentary diversions. We can purchase entertainment at great cost, but once again, this is not guaranteed to bring us genuine rest. It is a lie that is commonly believed among us that if could afford a more exotic vacation, or some expensive item, that we would be contented. Soul hunger can never be fed with things! Rest cannot be bought with money.
In Isaiah 55:1-4, God invites us –
“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David." ( NIV)
Here’s what God calls us to when He calls us to rest, in the middle of our work–
Recreation, Restoration, and Refreshing.
Do you know how to truly enjoy times of restoration?
Do you let God re-create you when you take time for rest?
Our break times, our rests should have as a primary goal, the recharging of our batteries, of finding what we need to be restored to maximum effectiveness for God’s purposes in our lives!
That means that recreation will be very different for different people– depending on the way God created them and gifted them to begin with.
∙ Knowing Tom Edmunds’ love for classical music, I can guess that some of the most restorative moments in his life are when he is lifted by the musical composition of Bach or Mozart performed by a skilled musician to appreciate God’s creative works.
∙ I love the world of ideas. Some of the most restorative moments in my memory involve a quiet retreat near the ocean with a couple of great books! (What a geek, huh?)
So, what is truly re-creative for you?
If you understand the passion that God has placed in you, the gifts of the Spirit that He has invested in you, then you will probably understand the best ways to be recreated, restored, and refreshed. If not, then you’ll probably be like millions of people who substitute a time of diversion and/or entertainment for real rest!
There are times of refreshing that are promised by the Lord - for those who wait on Him, who seek His face.
So let me summarize where we have been this morning --
First, work is part of God’s plan for us.
We work, not just to make a living, nor to prove our worth, but to fulfil God’s plan.
Second, rest is planned by God as part of a cycle - work, rest.
We need to use our times of rest in a way that goes beyond just ‘taking time off.’
God can help us to find refreshing, restoration, renewal of both body and spirit!
Include godly things in your time off this year.
Here a few suggestions –
In addition to that trip to the noisy, loud amusement park;
be sure to include time to be near God’s creation,
a river trip, a day in the forest, time on the beach, those kinds of things.
Don’t leave worship behind when you travel. But here’s a way to make it renewing.
Instead of looking for church like ours, why not visit an Episcopal or Lutheran service,
with a different order of worship, a different kind of music? Don’t be critical, but
enter in and let God speak to your heart in a new way.
Practice a spiritual discipline you do not normally practice.
For instance, take a day to fast. Or choose a day to be silent or alone, to listen to God.
Or decide to keep a journal for your entire vacation, taking 30 minutes in the morning or evening,
to listen for God and to record your thoughts.
And my prayer is that you will rest - real rest for your entire being – body, soul, and spirit! Amen.
Jerry D. Scott, copyright 2007 all rights reserved