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When things get really busy, I get wired.

I like a hectic schedule. I like hard work. I like to sweat. I even enjoy being stressed out. I know that sounds weird, but that's how I'm wired. Go, go, go.

But I can only take it for so long. Eventually, it gets to me, and something's got to give.

Sometimes it's my patience: I'll lash out at a friend. And then I'll say, "Sorry about that, but you know, I'm just fresh out of wonderful today."

Sometimes it's my health: I'll go nonstop for weeks, and then I'll get sick. I'm learning to listen to my body—especially when I've had 10 hours of sleep and I still can't get up in the morning.

Sometimes it's my brain: I'll get to the point where I can't form complete sentences. Or my mind will start racing, but I won't have a complete thought. That's when I know I've been pushing things too hard.

So what do I do when I reach that breaking point, when my body says, "I've had enough"?

Nothing.

That's right. Absolutely nothing. I'll just kick back and enjoy the quiet, the stillness, the peace. And once I've found that solitude, I'll pray. Because that's what Jesus did.

Talk about a guy with a crazy schedule. Thousands followed him everywhere, hanging on his every word, begging for miracles, and—in the case of the Pharisees—trying to trap him into saying or doing something against the law.

I'm sure Jesus felt stressed out at times. And what did he do? He often found a quiet place—alone, away from everyone else—to rest, to pray, to recharge his batteries, to get ready for another stressful day ahead.

We sometimes need that too, even if it means saying no to something else. The hardest thing in the world is to know everybody's getting together for something big, and then to say no. But as I become more aware of the consequences of stress—of saying yes too many times—I realize it's OK to choose to be alone, literally removed from everybody else without any possibility of interruption.

I admit, that's easier said than done. I look out my window and see the leaves I still haven't raked up from last fall, and I stress out about it. My first thought is that I ought to get out there and rake those leaves. But then I realize I'm not giving myself any slack.

So, sometimes I just have to force myself to sit down. To practice what I preach. To be still. And to be with God.

The leaves can wait another day.

Jen's latest CD, The Way I Am, includes a wonderful song about resting in God's arms, called "Come to Me." The chorus includes the line, "My yoke is easy, I'll give you rest" (see Matthew 11:30).

Copyright © 2002 by the author or Christianity Today/Campus Life magazine.
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