What am I doing to help with stress and anxiety during COVID-19? I am having patience and compassion for myself. I have seen so many posts encouraging us to “use” this time to be productive, to do something, to come up with a hobby or learn a new language or learn how to cook… you’ve seen the posts.
But this is just another sign of our culture refusing to slow down and settle into this new normal. We are a culture built on doing and seeing results. We work ourselves to death, we don’t take our vacations, we try to show our usefulness to a company by how much of our own selves and personal life we are willing to sacrifice.
If you want to learn a new language—good for you! But don't feel a false sense of guilt if you see someone doing something that you aren’t interested in attempting. That does not make you any more or less useful and significant.
This was never how it was meant to be. We were meant to work and toil, yes, but not to the detriment of all other parts of our lives.
Think of this time as an extended Sabbath.
Somehow we as a society have equated being overworked and having no boundaries as being successful and dedicated. We are slowly killing ourselves with our work ethic.
And to make matters even worse, we think those that have healthy boundaries are doing something wrong. After Hours makes it mandatory that all our volunteers and employees take one weekend a month off and one month a year—so we are sure that we are getting the rest and rejuvenation that we need. When the president of AH took her first month of sabbatical off, it was amazing the number of people that privately asked us if she was being disciplined or was having trouble and that was why she was stepping away from ministry for a month.
How did we get to this place where rest is seen as weakness? How is it that we feel if we take time away we are signifying LESS of a commitment to something than if we were to come back at it rested and with a new perspective?
Jesus often led by example in this area—when ministry was really heating up, just when the disciples were seeing results, Christ would say, stop—rest. Mark 6:30-31: “The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”
How counter-intuitive! NOW seems like the time to keep pressing on. The people were hungry for the message. Whatever they were doing was working! They were in a rhythm! But Jesus called for rest knowing that our worth is not in what we do, but in who we are—and who we are cannot be strengthened when we never stop to feed, reflect, and nourish our souls.
And I love the picture of Luke 23 of the women who had come to the tomb to wrap Christ’s body and prepare it for burial. Christ, their leader, their beloved had just DIED. Don’t you think they would drop everything to see that he was properly taken care of and buried? Verses 55-56 say: “The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.”
Not even the burial of our Lord and Savior was enough of a reason to get these women to break the Sabbath commandment. Surely a client or project isn’t one either.
Kurt Fredrickson says: “[A Sabbath] lifestyle is confession and declaration that we are not necessary. It is hard to admit, but we are dispensable. We are worthwhile and we do good work. We are loved and cherished, but we are not necessary. The work will go on without me. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3, I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. We need a more sobered attitude about our work and ourselves. Too much of what we do is wrapped up in us proving to ourselves, and others and God how valuable and necessary we are. Sabbath living declares my worth is not in what I do.”
So, what about you? What are the things that keep you from investing in Sabbath or thinking you have to achieve more during this time to be considered significant? What do you fear you’ll miss out on or lose if you take the time to break away and draw good boundaries? What boundaries have you been ignoring that you need in this chaotic time?
-Julia, Executive Director