A Steady Rhythm
by Ruth Haley Barton
posted 7/27/2007
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At a staff meeting in a church I was serving, we were discussing how we could attract more people to join the church and increase their involvement. Someone did the math and pointed out that there were already at least five time commitments per week expected of those who wanted to become church members!
Outwardly I tried to be supportive of the meeting's purpose, but on the inside I was screaming, Who would want to sign up for this? I was already trying to combat CFS (Christian fatigue syndrome) in my own life and couldn't imagine willingly inflicting it on someone else.
How is it that life in and around the church often gets reduced to so much activity, so much busyness, such incessant expectations?
Without adequate time for rest, we lose the ability to be fully present.—Ruth Haley Barton
As I looked around the planning table that day, I realized one of the main reasons church life is full of so much activity and busyness: this is the way its leaders are living.
Most of us know only one speed: full steam ahead. And we have been stuck in that speed for a very long time. If we do not establish saner rhythms in our own lives—life patterns that curb our unbridled activism and calm our compulsive busyness—we will not make it over the long haul. And neither will the people we are leading!
Work Hard, Rest Faithfully
Jesus understood how quickly our passions, even the most noble, can wear us out if we're not careful. Early in his ministry with the disciples, he began to teach them about the importance of establishing sane rhythms of work and rest.
In Mark 6, Jesus commissioned the disciples for ministry and gave them the authority to cast out demons, to preach the gospel, and to heal the sick. They went off on their first ministry excursion and returned all excited about their newfound power and influence. They crowded around Jesus to report all they had done.
But what does Jesus do? He didn't seem to have much time for their ministry reports. Immediately he instructed them "to come away with me and rest awhile." He seemed more concerned about helping them establish a rhythm that would sustain them in ministry rather than allowing them to be overly enamored by ministry success, which can lead to a compulsion to do more and more without ceasing.
When we keep pushing forward without taking adequate time for rest, our way of life may seem heroic, but there is frenetic quality to our work that lacks true effectiveness because we lose the ability to be fully present. Present to God and present to other people. And we lose the ability to discern what is really needed in our situation.
The result can be "sloppy desperation," a mental and spiritual state in which we're just trying to get it all done. And this prevents us from the quality of presence that delivers true insight and spiritual leadership.
Charles, a gifted physician, illustrates the point: "I discovered in medical school that if I saw a patient when I was tired or overworked, I would order a lot of tests. I was so exhausted, I couldn't tell exactly what was going on, so I got in the habit of ordering a battery of tests, hoping they would tell me what I was missing.
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