Years ago, I started my own business in web hosting, when that was a newish industry. I was studying in university at the same time, and had always been able to do both, until a server crashed during midterms. I didn’t let either midterms or my clients drop, I simply gave up sleep. It finally caught up with me, and I had to get out of my room and went for a late night walk. I eventually stumbled into a church, exhausted and scared that my business might not recover. I remember the minister listening, then suggesting, “get some rest…then consider, maybe God is trying to tell you something.”
I returned ready to solve my problems. I moved all the customers I could to one server. I ordered new server, then there was nothing I could do but wait. I could only rest.
I felt completely different when I woke up. I could study, I could write papers, I could think, I could fix the problems that caused the crash.
Rest is important!
An estimated 3.3 million Canadians age 15 or older have problems getting enough sleep, which may be affecting their health and quality of life.
A magazine of internal medicine summarized their research. The bottom line is: “sleep serves as an indicator of health and quality of life”
Lack of rest leads to more tension, depression, fatigue and marital strain, at least for women, according to one study of 1,500 women in rural Wisconsin.
And one medical publication found Middle-aged men who were at high risk of heart disease 50% less likely to die of a heart attack over nine years if they took frequent vacations.
We need rest, and we’re not just going to look at physiological reasons, but theological. That our need for rest comes from God himself.
Question: When was your longest stretch of sustained work with no day off? How did it impact you?
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Our series is on how Jesus resets our goals. We’re basing this on something Jesus taught in his sermon on the mount.
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
(Matthew 6:25-33 ESV)
Jesus was saying that we can get so busy and consumed by the day to day concerns of life, we lose track of the point. What was the point? We were created for relationship with God, and one another. All humans gave that up by focusing on ourselves instead, and there is evidence in the world’s brokenness. We can see it in broken relationships with ourselves, one another, our natural world, and with God himself. But God offers his love to us all the same. He invites us to live in his kingdom – to be in a relationship with him as our Lord – thanks to what Jesus did on the cross.
Last week, we learned how Jesus and his death on the cross give us the opportunity to reset life. His death and resurrection reset the world, since death was the most visible consequence of our sin and rebellion against God. He made it possible for us to live in Kingdom of God now, and for eternity.
But we have lots to do. Jesus isn’t saying we should quit our jobs, run around naked and hungry. He’s not saying food, shelter, clothes are a bad thing. They are all part of his creation, like us, and he has plans for it all.
He is just saying that we shouldn’t worry about such things. We shouldn’t be consumed by them. We shouldn’t let them distract us from our life’s true purpose of living in relationship with God, and one another. We shouldn’t let worrying about little goals get in the way of life’s big goal.
Question: When does careful planning turn into worry and get in the way of life goals?
Reminder: We are reading the Bible in sync as one community - so check out today's reading here.
Reminder: The best way to grow spiritually this year is to join our Christianity 101 in the Cafe Course in Pickering starting tomorrow night, January 22nd. Register for you and a friend today!
