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How to Rest in the Midst of a Busy Season

My topic for the week is “how to rest in the midst of a busy season.”  Of course, it could be a really short blog post.  You can’t rest in the midst of a busy season.  Those two things are incompatible.  When you are busy you are not resting, and when you are resting you are not busy.

Of course, I’ve never been accused of being too short in either speaking or writing.  I’m not done.  So if holidays are stressful for you because you are too busy, I encourage you to remember that the Lord gave us the pattern, model and commandment to take one day in seven for rest.  You can take Sabbath days in the midst of busy seasons, and thus actually find rest.  Look at your calendar.  Plan days of rest.  Rest is not working on different things.  Rest is relaxing, sleeping, reading, chilling.  Rest is praying, worshipping, and enjoying God.  Do that for sure.

For some of us the holidays are rough not just because there is a lot of extra activity like parties, travel, family expectations.  They are tough because we are forced to face stressful situations which we are able to successfully avoid most of the year.  We have to spend time with family members who annoy us.  There is that in-law that makes us blow a gasket.  There that great uncle who is going to use language we don’t wish our children to hear, and make racial comments that were wrong 40 years ago, and out of vogue 30 years ago.  There is the relative whose drinking problem is never more evident than when the holiday egg nog comes out. We feel like we are navigating class V rapids with no paddle!   We are stressed and out of control!  Christmas is stressful because we have to make nice when we don’t feel nice.  That takes energy.  That is exhausting.

Christ came for sinners.  These stressful situations remind us of our need for the gospel.  Take some time to think about what it means to live out the gospel in these situations.  I’ve been loved by Christ beyond imagination - He bore my sin and shame, and gave me His relationship with God the Father forever.  I deserve hell.  I get a seat at God’s banquet table as a family member.  What does it mean to live out that gospel reality in the most difficult relationships of life, and in the most stressful situations of the year?

It means different things in different situations.  It means love as you’ve been loved, forgive as you have been forgiven, and pursue as you’ve been pursued.  Sometimes it means great forbearance in love as described in 1 Corinthians 13.  Sometimes it means speaking up and speaking out but with the graciousness and tenderness that 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 describe.  Love may mean having that hard conversation with the relative with the drinking problem before the egg nog gets spiked.  It may mean speaking up about some new proposed ground rules for the family.  You may hear something like, “I’m really sorry, I never knew my teasing about your physical appearance hurt you.”  You might find some Sabbath rest in finally speaking up about the elephant in the room.

So now you really are scared.  Don’t be.  You need wisdom.  Read James 1.  God loves to give wisdom to you, because He has plenty of it, and He loves you.  He wants you to ask!  Trust Him.

I hope something in this hits home and helps you during this busy season.

In Him,

Don

Don Ward

Senior Pastor

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