Working on my book Super Occupied, I realized how important it is to have rhythm in my life. There are often things to do, and they often seem worse than they might be, because we don’t make a clear distinction between work and rest.
It’s easy to find people who think work is good and pastimes bad (i. e. , you’re resting for work). You can also find people who think that leisure is good and that work is bad (i. e. you work to rest). But according to the Bible, work and rest can be good if they are made for the glory of God. The Bible praises hard work (Proverbs 6:6-11; Matthew 25: 14-30; 1 Thessalonians 2: 9; 4: 11-12; 2 Thessalonians 3:10) and also exalts the virtue of rest (Exodus 20:8-11; Deuteronomy 5: 12-15; Psalm 127:2) Both have their place. The hardest part is putting them in place.
- Many of us are less busy than we think.
- But life seems constantly overwhelming because our days.
- Our weeks.
- And our years are not routine.
- One of the dangers of technology is that work and rest mix into a messy mush.
- We never leave work when we are at home.
- So the next day we have trouble returning to work when we are at work.
- We have no routine.
- We have no order these days.
- We are never completely connected and never totally “disconnected”.
- So we sit idle in the office for twenty minutes on YouTube.
- Then we check emails for forty minutes in front of the TV at home.
- This setting may work for some employers and may seem liberating for many employees.
- But over time.
- Most of us work less efficiently.
- Whether at home or outdoors.
- Finding our work less enjoyable when there is no break.
- Regular.
- Focused and deliberate.
Not long ago, the Wall Street Journal published a fascinating article about olympic champion Bernard Lagat. Born in Kenya, but now a U. S. citizen, Lagat holds seven U. S. records in light athletics, between 1,500 and 5,000 meters. According to the article, one of the secrets of your career is actually not running. After eleven months of intense training and competition, Lagat?Keep your slippers in the closet and attack your food for five weeks. Don’t run. Do you train your son’s football team and earn about 4 kilos?He has taken this long rest period every fall since 1999. Lagat says “Rest is a good thing” and calls his month of inactivity “pure ecstasy. “Even the best in the world need a break. In fact, they wouldn’t be the best without a break. Idleness is not a mere indulgence or a vice. Everything must be fulfilled.
People like to say that life is a marathon, not 100 meters, but a trail exercise, we run a lot and then we rest a lot. We went up a hill, then we drink a Gatorade, we went up a few steps, then 200 sit-ups, then 400 sit-ups. In the meantime, we rest. Without that, we would never finish the exercise, if we want to continue, we must learn to stop, just as the Israelites had on their calendar, we need daily inactivity, weekly rest and snacks throughout the year.
That’s why it’s so worrying that our lives become increasingly routine, night and morning have lost their meaning. Everything’s mixed up. The faucet drips constantly. Life becomes an indisposition, until we no longer endure anything and fall into disease, exhaustion or depression. We can’t run all the time and we expect us to run very well.