Sunday 10 April 2011

Rest BEFORE you get tired.

This week, Tuesday watched me hit the wall. Whatever it is that keeps me on the front foot was gone. I was irritable and grumpy. By the end of the day I had had to apologise a few times to people that I love and care about for my sharpness of tongue. What happened?
What happened was that I had neglected my need to rest. I had not had a weekend off since the beginning of the year. Going for three months without taking a weekend off is not wise. A fair bit of those three months had been on the road too, which is quite a bit more draining.
A mentor, Charles Gordon, had drummed it into me, "Rest before you are tired." I have repeated this regularly to our team but here I was having neglected it ... again. The trouble about resting when you are tired is that it takes much longer to recover than if you rest regularly even when you feel like you don't need it. Ask me - I took some days off this week and yet I still don't feel fully recovered. And I know that this is not helpful to us as a team. Ah well. Stoopid boy.
It's not for nothing that God has put the Sabbath principle into His Word so strongly. He made us to need to rest regularly.
I encourage our full time team to take a weekend off about every 8 weeks. The market-place guys who lead cell groups etc., I encourage to take a weekend every 6 weeks.
Please let me encourage you to rest before you get tired. A lot of people will thank you for it.

3 comments:

  1. We're off on holiday on Friday for a week - feels a bit like closing the door after the horse has bolted though! But it'll be great to get away just to unwind!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Have a great time Col. Rest well, and when you get back, rest regularly!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you so much... From Mongolia

    ReplyDelete