We’ve talked, at length, about pursuing our dreams, fulfilling our purposes, and the importance of work ethic to accomplish our goals, but we’ve never talked about rest – about maintaining a balance between work and rest. One would think that getting rest is an obvious part of daily life, but I would argue against that. On social media and among celebrities, there’s an emphasis on the dream – sacrificing things like relationships, time, and sometimes, even fun. As important as sacrifice is to help discipline us on the road to purpose, the line ought to be drawn at sacrificing rest.
Let me just clarify that rest is not sleep. While sleep is paramount to our mental and physical health as well, rest is much more than turning in for the night. It’s giving your mind and body a reprieve from the toil of the day and work itself. Too much of anything – even work – is no good and detrimental to your mental health, and if you push too hard, it can even affect your physical health. There’s so much rhetoric about how we have to eat, breathe and sleep the dream in order to “make it”, but giving your body and mind time to re-energize doesn’t make you any less committed or passionate about the task at hand. Time away from your respective grind doesn’t create distance between you and the grind. In fact, it provides perspective. As a writer, it is when I walk away from the page that my ideas arrive and begin to flow.
We say all the time that it isn’t about the destination, but the journey. Imagine getting to your purpose – identifying it, reaching it, and achieving it, but being exhausted, never having given your mind, body, or spirit rest. You can’t live the dream because you have no energy for it. And on top of all that, all there would be to remember would be that you’ve worked fiercely, but never lived.
“And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.” – Genesis 2:2
Aside from helping us to maintain the balance of work and play, rest is a gift from God. I will leave you with this: God himself rested for a day after He created the world. In fact, he designated the Sabbath day as a day of rest so that like Him, we would rest from responsibilities. Take time for yourself – for a mental break, for leisure, for whatever brings you peace, and when you do return to your work, your passion, and that which fuels you, you will have that much more to contribute.
