I once recorded a video I never posted. And afterwards I deleted it. Let me tell you why.<\/p>\n
I was on a busy trip in Colorado. One or two meetings every single day, week after week. In the middle of it all I had set aside a single day off. A day of snowboarding in Breckenridge, one of the first places in the world to open its mountains to snowboarders. I love snowboarding. It's pure joy for me.<\/p>\n
So there I sat on the ski lift, mountains all around me and snow on my jacket, recording a little video about how important it is to do something you love. To rest. To give yourself permission.<\/p>\n
I never posted it. I went a step further and deleted it entirely.<\/p>\n
Because while I sat there enjoying it, a guilty conscience gnawed at me. Shouldn't I be working? Was it okay to take a whole day off just for my own joy? What would people think if they saw their pastor having fun on a mountain in the middle of a busy stretch?<\/p>\n
Think about how deep that sat. I was so embarrassed to have rested that I deleted the evidence.<\/p>\n
I think many people know that feeling. We can take time off with our bodies, but the conscience never takes time off. We rest, and afterward we pay for it with guilt.<\/p>\n
But then there's something I can't let go of.<\/p>\n
When God gave the ten commandments, he used one line on most of them. \"You shall not murder.\" \"You shall not steal.\" Short and clear. But when he came to the day of rest, he used three times as much space:<\/p>\n
\"Remember the Sabbath day and keep it set apart from other days. You have six days a week to do your work and your daily tasks, but the seventh day is a day of rest, dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day you must not do any kind of work.\" (Exodus 20:8-10)<\/p>\n
And notice the reason:<\/p>\n
\"I used six days to create the earth, the heavens, the sea and everything in them, but I rested on the seventh day. That is why I blessed the day of rest and made it a special day.\" (Exodus 20:11)<\/p>\n
God rested. He wasn't tired. He rested because rest belongs to a good life. He built it into the very rhythm of creation, and he made it a commandment on par with \"you shall not murder.\"<\/p>\n
Think about it. We take the day of rest lightly. God took it so seriously that he wrote the most about it.<\/p>\n
Later Jesus put into words why:<\/p>\n
\"The Sabbath was made for man \u2013 man was not made for the Sabbath.\" (Mark 2:27)<\/p>\n
Rest is a gift to you. It's not a reward you have to earn. It's God's way of saying: you are worth more than what you produce.<\/p>\n
Next week we'll dig into the waters of rest that Psalm 23 speaks of. God doesn't drive us forward ahead of him. He leads us to water where we can stop and drink.<\/p>\n
I can't get that video back. But I can choose not to delete the next day off. And so can you.<\/p>\n
So here's my question to you: When did you last take a full day off, without a guilty conscience? And what are you actually afraid will happen if you do? Feel free to share in the comments.<\/p>\n
You don't have to earn rest. It has already been given.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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