Well, it’s September and I’ve learned a lesson over the Summer – I need to rest properly! I usually look forward to September – it’s my New Year (probably stemming from fresh starts at school), and I feel excited about the possibilities ahead, energised and expectant. It’s been very different this year. I have felt jaded, flat, lacking in motivation. It feels like I’ve just picked up where I left off in July, despite the general ceasing of activity in August. Sadly that is true. I have not had time away of any significance from church activities. Although not ‘busy’ as such, I have not been away mentally throughout August from church life, and now I am paying the price. My pastor warned me of the dangers of not getting quality time away, but I naively thought that organising a church holiday would count as the holiday I needed! (I hear many wise pastors chuckling to themselves at this point!)
We really do need time out otherwise we just become functioning, going through the motions, rather than really living and truly blessing others. It’s difficult as well, as there are so many demands on our lives, particularly for anyone with a young family. Our heavenly Dad created us to need and enjoy rest, indeed man’s first day on earth was a Sabbath, a day of rest. I think He did it like that to teach us to work from a place of rest, not rest to recover from all the work!
I’m not fully recovered yet, as I struggle at times to engage with the things that once gave me joy, but I have taken up fishing as an excuse to ‘get away from it all’ and just enjoy being with my Dad in the beautiful world He created for me. Even here though the balance can be difficult to achieve, as my son also wants to come fishing with me, which I am really overjoyed by, but aware that this will not afford me the ‘alone time’ that I desperately need, and I can’t spend all my time fishing with my son or on my own, as I have a wife and daughter to think about as well! It’s not easy but I am well aware that at times I have to be selfish in looking after me and making sure my life is in harmony with the Holy Spirit, or the life I lead outside this will be counterproductive to all those I love.
We really do need time out otherwise we just become functioning, going through the motions, rather than really living and truly blessing others. It’s difficult as well, as there are so many demands on our lives, particularly for anyone with a young family. Our heavenly Dad created us to need and enjoy rest, indeed man’s first day on earth was a Sabbath, a day of rest. I think He did it like that to teach us to work from a place of rest, not rest to recover from all the work!
I’m not fully recovered yet, as I struggle at times to engage with the things that once gave me joy, but I have taken up fishing as an excuse to ‘get away from it all’ and just enjoy being with my Dad in the beautiful world He created for me. Even here though the balance can be difficult to achieve, as my son also wants to come fishing with me, which I am really overjoyed by, but aware that this will not afford me the ‘alone time’ that I desperately need, and I can’t spend all my time fishing with my son or on my own, as I have a wife and daughter to think about as well! It’s not easy but I am well aware that at times I have to be selfish in looking after me and making sure my life is in harmony with the Holy Spirit, or the life I lead outside this will be counterproductive to all those I love.