Taking Time to Recharge
She came into my office and asked if I had a charger. Her cell phone needed charging and she had not taken time to do it. I did have one and allowed her to use it. When she left, I realized that I needed recharging. Not my phone, but I personally needed it and for the same reason she had not recharged her phone. I had known for several weeks that I was unusually tired. I had allowed work to pile up and almost bury me beneath details and deadlines. When I talked to my boss, who also happens to be my husband, he said he had noticed the fatigue and weariness. So, we took a vacation! We simply went home and did nothing – nothing except what we wanted to do when we wanted to do it. For me that meant sleeping late and reading a good book.
Just as a cell phone needs some down time to recharge so it can serve again, so do you and I. In fact, God created us that way. Ron Hutchcraft, one of my favorite authors, calls it ‘“the Sabbath principle' He built into our creation, and He doesn't intend for us to work all the time. He made us so we would take regular rest. It's part of the creation.”
A recent online article on stress (which constant work creates) stated that “chronic stress can lead to decreased creativity, memory problems, and other issues. A break in the stress cycle can lead to sharper thinking and increased creativity that can spill over into all areas of our lives.”
Jesus knew the value of rest and told His disciples, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while, for there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat” (Mark 6:31). The twenty-third psalm gives us the biblical prescription to fight stress. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul…”
Have you allowed any time lately for quiet waters? Are you saying, “I'm too busy to take a timeout?” Again, quoting Hutchcraft, “It's the down time that recharges the battery of the cell phone – and it's not wasted time. If I don't give that recovery time, it eventually won't work at all. It's the down time that recharges your battery. And it's not wasted time. If you don't allow that recovery time, eventually you won't work at all!”