Rest – The Cure for Marginless Living
Living and functioning in a technical world that is speeding at light speed is more and more the standard as the exception in our daily living. As more “progressive” we are, the busier we are. And less time we have for our loved ones and ourselves. This is the naked trues as I’m sitting at a desk in a hotel in Changzhou, China haven’t talked or communicated with my wife or our daughter for nearly 5 days. The queue of things we need to do never diminishes and is only getting longer and longer.
In his book, Margin, Dr. Richard A. Swenson, M.D. laments, “The conditions of modern-day living devour margin.” A lack of margin has quickly become almost a universal challenge. We are stretching to the limit. Speaking of being overloaded, overworked, overextended, overburdened, overstressed, overbooked and overwhelmed.
We are at a point to see the power of multi-tasking as a skill when it’s a symptom of an too-busy life. Especially as entrepreneurs and manager with an entrepreneurial spirit we triumph about our busyness, our fully scheduled calendar and piling deadlines. We are pushing our lives to the limits.
Dr. Swenson as a medical doctor is concerned about the lack of margin in our society. Every day he sees the toll that is taken on people’s emotional, physical, financial, relational and spiritual health. The lack of margin is literally killing us.
Rest Is the Cure for a Life without Margin
Let us think about it. Rest may be the most challenging of all healthy disciplines to put into practice. You ask why? Because we’re driven. There’s so much to do and so little time to do. Resting feels so passive, so unproductive! Hard work is the victory. So why I want to rest! I’ll rest when I’m dead!
You remember the old saying, “All work and no play makes Jack a doll boy”? It’s true, when all what we do is work, not only are we no fun to be around, this is most likely the original meaning of that saying, but we’re also pretty dull, as in “not too bright”.
Fear and anxiety may also keep us from resting. We may harbor fears that if we let up for even a moment, the competition will overtake us. Or maybe we are workaholics, addicted to work. We’ve trained ourselves never to sit still. We’ve always got to be doing something. Everything we do has to be producing some tangible benefit. Maybe we’re just too proud to rest. Our motto is “I can do this!” and we say it without hesitation for all the other worked stacking on our plate.
I don’t know your spiritual view of God is, but consider this. In the account of creation in Genesis 1 and 2, it says that God created all the heavens and the earth in six days, and “On the seventh day he rested from his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.” Genesis 2: 2-3.
What we find is that God did not rest because he was tired. He rested for two other important reasons: one was to enjoy his creation, and the other was to provide us an example to follow. In fact, he saw our need for rest as so important to include it as one of the Ten Commandments. Maybe it was intended as a gift, but we’ve grown to see it as a burden.
When we are creating margin in our lives by resting, we:
- Reduce stress and its physical, emotional, psychological, relational and spiritual effects
- Gain a fresh perspective on life and the issues we’re currently facing
- Bring balance to our busy lives
- Recharge out batteries
- Enjoy the fruits of our labors
- Invest in our relationships
How to Rest
It seems in the first place silly to write about how to rest. The animals know how to rest instinctively. When you have a dog or cat, you know what I mean. But I know by myself how much I and most others struggle with this issue, so it might be warrants a discussion.
- Rest is a mindset
Rest is more than merely ceasing from work. We can stop working and our minds may still be occupied with planning, scheming, fretting, etc. The above example showed us that true rest is a decision to enjoy what we’ve created. It’s the conscious pursuit of loving relationships. Rest is seeking for quietness, peace and renewal. - Rest is a practice
Rest is also a mindset, but it0s more than that. To cease from work and take a day off takes discipline. Put it on your calendar. Make it a weekly, repeating entry. A habit. You decide how to spend your day of rest. But challenge yourself not to answer work emails, return work calls or engage in other work-a-day tasks. Instead, do things that give you enjoyment. Spend time with your loved ones. Read a book for pleasure. And get a good night’s sleep each night. - Rest is talent
If taking a day of rest is a new experience for you. I can almost guarantee you’ll feel awkward at first. The ability to truly engage in rest requires practice. It’s an art, a talent that doesn’t necessarily come easily at first. In the beginning, you may find yourself treating rest like another project you are engaged in. But resist that temptation. We always think we need a list of things to do.
When starting out, it may help to associate rest with a location. A lake, a bench in a park, a walk in the woods, a coffee shop, or some place you know you can find peace and quiet.
Our society has gotten more and more busy. We’ve squeezed margin right out of our lives. Rest is the cure for lack of margin. Take time to rest each week – even every day. Let yourself reboot, refresh, renew, revitalize. And when you find yourself stuck in the whirlwind of frantic activity, let that trigger the response. “Oh, yeah! I need to rest.”
Read in my upcoming Blog how I can help you in your personal and business life.
Leave me a comment I’m curious to know where you rest best. What is your resting routine, how do you rest?
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