Weariness

Somewhere between the hustle culture sermons about “grinding for the Kingdom” and your boss passive-aggressively emailing you at 10 p.m. with a “quick question,” the idea of actual, soul-filling rest has been lost.

Rest isn’t just a luxury—it’s a necessity. A spiritual, emotional, and even physical game-changer that modern life is actively working against. We treat it like a reward for productivity, something we “earn” by checking enough boxes. But that’s not how it works. If you only allow yourself to rest when you’ve run out of energy, you’re not actually resting. You’re recovering from burnout.

For a generation that’s really into “self-care,” we sure are bad at resting. We schedule vacations that are more exhausting than our regular lives and take “Sabbath” as an excuse to binge entire seasons of prestige TV in one sitting.

The Bible starts with God creating the world in six days and resting on the seventh—not because he was tired but because he was setting the rhythm. Rest wasn’t an afterthought. It was built into creation itself.

Jesus followed that rhythm too. He regularly stepped away from crowds, left people hanging (yes, really) and took time alone to pray. If the literal Savior of the world wasn’t available 24/7, why do we think we need to be?

Here’s the thing: rest isn’t just good for your soul. It’s good for your brain. Studies show that chronic stress literally rewires your brain, making it harder to focus, regulate emotions, and be productive in the long run.

The world thrives on keeping you busy. Consumerism, capitalism, and even some versions of church culture—there’s always something else to achieve. But choosing rest? That’s countercultural.

So, take a real Sabbath. Put your phone in another room. Go outside. Breathe. Let yourself rest. Because you don’t need to “earn” it. In fact, you were created for it.

Athletes will tell you that working out is not the most important part of training. Recovery is the number one cause of athletic injuries is the lack of recovery time between training sessions.

Let me repeat this because it’s so counterintuitive—recovery is more important to athletic performance than training is. Your body needs to rest and repair between periods of exertion. By not letting each of the muscle groups rest, a person will reduce their ability to repair. Insufficient rest also slows fitness progression and increases the risk of injury.

Possible Preaching Angle:

This a physical expression of a reality that applies to your heart and soul in serving Christ as well. We could probably predict who’s going to burn out and who’s not by looking at their recovery practices. But most people don’t take their recovery seriously. They’re simply shocked and heartbroken when their soul suddenly gives out. How will you build recovery into your life? What’s your plan?

In her book, Aging Faithfully, Alice Fryling writes about what she learned from insomnia:

Sleep has always been difficult for me, but about the time I turned sixty, insomnia came banging at my door. I lay awake every night for hours. Sometimes in anxiety, sometimes in boredom. I prayed every night that God would help me sleep. That didn't work. It only made my insomnia worse because then I would lie awake trying to solve the theological issues around unanswered prayer.

One tired morning as I sat in quiet, I began to wonder why God created us to sleep in the first place. If I were God, I would want people to stay awake to help take care of the world. But for about eight hours out of every twenty-four, God designed us to be asleep.

I realized that when I sleep, I am out of control. When I experience insomnia, I am also out of control. I certainly cannot make myself go to sleep. Perhaps insomnia and sleep accomplish the same purpose. In other words, insomnia was a reminder, like sleep, that we do not control our own lives, let alone the world. God is our Creator and is the one in charge.

My ‘theology of sleep’ is my own personal reminder that God is God and I am not. God is in control of my life, my waking and sleeping hours, in loving, creative, grace-filled ways. Apparently, my being out of control is part of God's design.

Yuta Sakamoto was exhausted from selling home-improvement projects, including the boss’s demand that he help clean up at renovation sites on weekends. One day, he mustered his courage and announced he wanted to quit. But his boss warned him he would be ruining his future, and Sakamoto shrank back.

Then a friend proposed a solution. Sakamoto didn’t have to confront the boss again—he could hire someone to do it for him. After sending $200 and his case details to a quitting agency, he was finally a free man.

“I would have been mentally broken if I had continued,” says 24-year-old Sakamoto, who found a new job as a salesman at a printing firm.

A labor shortage in Japan means underpaid or overworked employees have other options nowadays. The problem: this famously polite country has a lot of people who hate confrontation. Some worry they’ll cause a disruption by leaving, or they dread the idea of co-workers gossiping about what just transpired in the boss’s office.

Enter a company called Exit. Toshiyuki Niino co-founded it to help people quit after experiencing his own difficulties in leaving jobs. “Americans may be surprised, but I was too shy or too scared to say what I think,” says Niino, 34. “Japanese are not educated to debate and express opinions.” Exit now handles more than 10,000 cases a year in which its staff quits on behalf of clients.

Possible Preaching Angles:

There are several approaches you might take with this story: 1) Fear and Courage – Learning how to overcome fear with faith and courage (2 Tim. 1:7); 2) Work Ethic – Finding a career that fits with our skills and well-being (Col. 3:23); Wisdom and Guidance – Sakamoto’s friend suggesting the use of a quitting agency illustrates seeking counsel from others when making decisions (Prov. 11:14).

The day after the Trump assassination attempt, The Wall Street Journal ran a story in which they interviewed Americans about the state of our nation. The article concluded, “The weariness was palpable nationwide as The Wall Street Journal spoke with more than four dozen people about how they felt about the shooting that came close to killing a former U.S. president. They pointed fingers and expressed anger, fear, and heartbreak...”

Nearly to person, they expressed a sense of dread, saying there seems to be no good news on the horizon… But unlike other times of crisis, after 9/11 or Sandy Hook or George Floyd, this event left few Americans hopeful that any good might come out of tragedy.

A sixty-three-year-old cook said, “The world has gone to Hades in a handbasket.” A thirty-two-year-old electrician from New Orleans said, “There’s a hole in this country…We’re not sticking together.” A retired project manager said, “We’re in crisis. There is no easy solution, there’s no sound bite. We’ve lost our ability to listen or to hear.”

The article ended by focusing on a married couple in their late 40s from Austin, Texas. “They used to joke about plans to survive a zombie apocalypse,” the authors noted. “Now they talk seriously whether they can afford land outside of a city. A quiet place away from civil unrest.”

Have you ever wondered what happens in your brain while you sleep? A good night's sleep does more than just help you feel rested; it might literally clear your mind.

A study published in the journal Cell shows how deep sleep may wash away waste buildup in the brain during waking hours, an essential process for maintaining brain health. According to one researcher, “It’s like turning on the dishwasher before you go to bed and waking up with a clean brain.”

Research sheds light on how deep sleep plays a crucial role in “cleaning” the brain by flushing out waste products that accumulate during waking hours. This process, known as glymphatic clearance, is driven by the brain’s glymphatic system to remove toxic proteins associated with neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.

The study identified norepinephrine, a molecule released during deep sleep, as a key player in this process. Researchers observed in mice that norepinephrine waves occur roughly every 50 seconds, causing blood vessels to contract and create rhythmic pulsations. These pulsations act as a pump, propelling brain fluid to wash away waste.

These findings, which likely apply to humans, highlight the importance of high-quality, natural sleep for maintaining cognitive health. Poor sleep may disrupt waste clearance, potentially increasing the risk of neurological disorders. Researchers noted that understanding these mechanisms can help people make informed decisions about their sleep and overall brain health.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Sleep is a precious gift from God, reminding us of the importance of rest in our lives. By modeling rest himself, God teaches us that taking time to recharge is necessary. Renewing our minds is crucial, and rest allows us to do just that—refreshing our thoughts and rejuvenating our spirit.

Two days after the attempted assassination of former President Trump, The Wall Street Journal ran an article with the following title:

“‘I’m Tired. I’m Done.’ Nation Faces Exhaustion and Division After Trump Assassination Attempt, Americans express dismay about the state of the country: ‘The world has gone to Hades in a handbasket.’”

They spoke to four dozen Americans across the country and gave the following summary:

Nearly to a person, they expressed a sense of dread, saying there seems to be no good news on the horizon. Their list of concerns is endless: The lingering effects of a socially isolating pandemic; violent protests over disagreements about war; three election cycles of increasing polarization; and decades of escalating gun violence. That is not to mention economic turmoil and inflation. And unlike other times of crisis, after 9/11 or Sandy Hook or George Floyd, this event left few Americans hopeful that any good might come out of tragedy.

Towards the end of the article, they quoted Clement Villaseñor a 32-year-old electrical maintenance, who said, “There’s a hole in the country, and this is a part of that. We’re not sticking together,” he said. “There’s so much separation, it makes me feel far apart from people.”

If you’re waking up feeling more exhausted than when you fell asleep, you’re not alone. According to new research, the average American wakes up feeling well-rested only three mornings out of the week. The survey of 2,000 U.S. adults reports that the average person doesn’t get anywhere near the quality or amount of sleep they want.

On average, Americans only get six hours of sleep on any given night, while a majority aspire to get eight or more in the new year (58%). Parents in particular claim to struggle with nighttime routines. Thirty-five percent of respondents who are parents say their nighttime routine suffers, with a similar percentage of parents sharing that they have trouble winding down before bed most of the week (34%).

It’s not just parents, however, as two in three Americans (66%) report that they need a full two hours or more to wind down before being able to fall asleep. Respondents from the Northeast (38%) and “night people” (53%) are most likely to struggle with winding down.

Freelance writer Jason Heller describes how he and his wife made a pact a few years ago:

Every Sunday, we swore to each other, we will abstain from work. We start our morning and end our day by bingeing TV in bed. The door of our apartment is opened only for pizza to be slid inside. Chores go undone. Fitness is spurned. Job-related emails and texts are not read.

Lazy Sunday, as we like to call it, is hardly a revolutionary idea. A weekly time of rest is an ancient staple of several religions. And the five-day workweek has been the standard in the U.S., (but) spillover into non-workdays is common. A 2015 Rand survey found that about half of American employees do work in their free time in order to meet job demands. For many who started working from home during the pandemic, the boundary between labor and leisure has dissolved even further.

We shouldn’t need to actively protect our one day off—but sadly, we do. Rest time can feel indulgent or unnatural. ... The instinct to hustle—whether for success or just survival—is hard to shake. Still, we do need respite—not only from our jobs but from all of the many obligations that crop up in adult life.

Pre-pact, Angie and I often used Sundays to prep for the coming workweek. We thought we were buying time that we could spend later. The problem is that work is a bottomless pit—there’s always more to do. Sometimes, the people we’ve been close to for decades are the very people we tend to take for granted. Taking a break gives Angie and me the opportunity to really see each other again.

That might be the most important reason to pause work: not just to fuel up in preparation for more work later on, but for the sake of the pause itself. Although Angie and I aren’t religious, we really do think of our secular day of rest as sacred; that’s why we take pains to protect it. When you take away all the tasks you might feel pressed to do on a Sunday, what you’re left with isn’t an absence. It’s an opening.

Possible Preaching Angle:

1) Sabbath; Sunday; Rest - Although this article was admittedly written from a secular point of view, and includes excessive time with the TV, the central idea agrees wholeheartedly with Scripture (Exod. 20:8-11; Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2). Obviously, for the believer, Sunday rest would include gathering with the Lord’s people for worship (Heb. 10:24-25), but also taking the rest of the day for rest and recovery from the week. 2) Labor Day – This holiday is a good reminder to return to God’s guidance of taking one day a week off to rest, not just once a year.

It was a typical Monday morning at a cloud services company in Denver, except for a weeping 29-year-old project manager crouched in the emergency stairwell. Kieran Tie felt like “absolute trash” that day. He could no longer bring himself to sit through pointless management meetings and pretend to (care) about on-demand enterprise data storage.

In the preceding months, he’d found it increasingly difficult to complete the simplest of tasks. Plagued with insomnia and regularly forgetting meals, he’d developed a remarkably short temper. He had stormed out of meetings when he disagreed with higher-ups, something he’d never done before in a professional setting.

Tie said, “I felt like a failure because I didn’t know what to do.” The predicament confounded him because he had a great job at a growing company with talented colleagues. The hours, like the compensation (low six-figures, plus bonus) were “very fair,” and he could ride his bike to the office, 10 minutes from his house. And yet, as he rocked weeping in the fetal position in a stairwell underneath a fire extinguisher for the better part of an hour, it was clear something needed to change.

Across the country, more and more people are succumbing to emotional collapse at work. The World Health Organization included the colloquial term “burnout” in the International Classification of Diseases, listed as an “occupational phenomenon” with three symptoms:

1. Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion

2. Increased mental distance from one’s job or feeling negative toward one’s career

3. Reduced professional productivity

Not surprisingly, 94 percent of American workers say they’re stressed at work, 75 percent of Millennials believe they’re more stressed than their parents. and 80 percent say they’re in the midst of a quarter-life crisis. So, in the next five to ten years, we will see burnout increase and a lot more mental health problems begin to emerge as a consequence.

In May, 1853, Phoebe and her husband Holden Judson joined a covered wagon train near Kansas City hoping to reach Washington Territory by mid-October. This was a distance of more than 2,000 miles over the rough Oregon Trail. Like all wagon trains, they elected a captain. His word was the law. Well, they chose Rev. Gustavus Hines, only to be surprised one Saturday night when he announced the train would never travel on Sundays.

Phoebe was shocked. They had half a continent to cross, at oxen pace (15-20 miles per day on a good trail), with mountain passes and innumerable river crossings ahead of them. She sat in her wagon and just fumed. One family deserted the train and joined another.

On their first Sunday, while they stood still, one train after another passed them by. They started out again on Monday, only to reach their first river cross on Tuesday evening. A long line of wagons stretched out ahead of them, waiting for the single ferry to carry them across. They waited three days. On Saturday they resumed the journey, only to be told they would still rest the whole next day. Phoebe was livid. This made absolutely no sense to her.

Then, a few weeks later she began to see scores of dead oxen, mules, and horses along the trail. They had been driven so relentlessly, they had collapsed and died. She grudgingly admitted that perhaps the animals needed a day of rest.

A few weeks later, she ruefully admitted that maybe the men needed it too, since they walked most of the time. Then she slowly began to notice that as they worshipped, ate, rested, and even played together on Sundays, it had a remarkably beneficial effect upon people’s spirits. There was less grumbling, more cooperation. She even noticed that they seemed to make better time the other six days.

Finally, what totally sold her on the value of the Sabbath happened one Sunday evening. The family that had deserted them came limping into their campsite, humbly asking to rejoin them. She had assumed they were at least a week ahead; in fact, they had fallen behind. Their own wagon train had broken down! Of course, they welcomed them back. And so it happened that they reached their destination in plenty of time, as friends, and out of the 50 head of cattle with which they began, only two were lost.

Stephanie is a young mother with four children. Her typical day includes waking up at dawn, diapering and feeding one child while clothing another, preparing lunches for the rest, doing a couple loads of laundry, cooking dinner, and putting the kids to bed—all before falling into bed herself, exhausted. The exhaustion runs deep. Aren’t there more important things I should be doing? she asks, lamenting that she doesn’t have the energy for prayer and study. Many days, she suffers quietly and alone.

For all of us who struggle to find spiritual meaning in our daily work, Stephanie’s story resonates. And the longer we stay rutted in our routines, the more pressing our questions become: How is this work shaping my heart and mind? Is it strengthening my relationship with God and others? Does it even matter in the world?

Author Bradley Nassif writes:

Mundane duties (are) like God’s heavenly sandpaper. They (can) mold character, cleanse away impurity, and transfigure a person to reflect the beauty of Christ. Where we labor is where our character is formed and we are made Christlike. Much of our work, especially the more menial tasks, teaches us to repent and die daily to our sins. Our highest vocation is not the kind of work we do, but the kind of people we become doing it.

A small glimpse into what our heroic war veterans went through can be found in the seven-part Ken Burns documentary The War. It covers World War II from the perspective of the soldiers.

In the episode "When Things Get Tough," the narrator quotes Pulitzer Prize winning Bill Maulden, a cartoonist and writer for Stars & Stripes. It is an analogy written for those who have never fought in a war on the miseries and hardships of the American soldier, in this case with scenes from the Italian Campaign:

Dig a hole in your backyard while it is raining. Sit in the hole while the water climbs up around your ankles. Pour cold mud down your shirt collar. Sit there for 48 hours. So there is no danger of your dozing off, imagine that a guy is sneaking around waiting for a chance to club you on the head. Or set your house on fire.

Get out of the hole, fill a suitcase full of rocks, pick it up, put a shotgun in your other hand, and walk on the muddiest road you can find. Fall flat on your face every few minutes, as you imagine big meteors streaking down beside you. If you repeat this performance every three days, for several months, you may begin to understand why an infantryman gets out of breath. But you still won't understand how he feels when things get tough.

Four-year-old Landry’s reaction to another Monday was video recorded by his home’s outdoor security camera. The lens is focused on the driveway and the street in front of the home. It’s a sunny but cold winter’s day, there are no leaves on the trees, and the lawn is brown.

There is a yellow school bus waiting at the end of the driveway. Then we see four-year-old Landry bundled up in his coat with his backpack, walking down the driveway toward the bus. When he reaches the end of the driveway, he suddenly stops, plops backwards on the driveway, and just lays there. He is apparently exasperated that it was Monday again. The bus attendant comes down the bus stairs and reaches down to help Landry to his feet, and they get on the bus together.

His dad Jason explained, “When he’s really tired, he gets a bit grumpy and then gets way overdramatic. I saw somebody comment that growing up is learning how to do that in your head instead of in physical form. And that’s exactly right. I think we all feel like this on Monday, and I think that’s why it’s so relatable, to see the bus and be like, ‘I can’t do it today.’”

You can view the short video here.

There’s a new trend at gym classes around the country. Americans emerging from more than two years of pandemic are looking for something new in their workouts: A good rest. Gyms say they are seeing increased demand for gentler classes, and they’re expanding their mellower offerings. They’re also rolling out dedicated “recovery” rooms equipped with massage lounge chairs and self-massage gadgets.

One participant said his workout reminds him of preschool nap time. He lies on a mat with pillows in a dimly lighted room and follows an instructor through a series of gentle stretches while calming music plays. Aptly named Surrender, the hourlong class in his Houston gym has been packed. The chain has increased the number of Surrender classes by an average of about 50% across its locations compared with 2019.

Months of stress and sweatpants have shifted priorities for gym-goers, with many saying they now care more about how they feel versus how they look. A recent survey of 16,000 Americans reported 43% are exercising to feel better and 59% to reduce stress. As one fitness expert said, “Leaving it all on the gym floor doesn’t seem like a priority as much.”

During the pandemic, many of us turned to smartphones and screens to manage our stress. But as public life opens up again, some are looking for a different kind of escape.

At a cafe in Seoul, South Korea, called the Green Lab, patrons pay for timeslots to simply sit and do nothing. That’s right--they pay to do nothing. The Green Lab requires that no one is allowed to speak and all phones be turned off. A large glass window looks out onto a green forest and diffusers around the cafe release pleasing aromas. And every day, the three time slots are completely booked.

What we call “zoning out,” Koreans call “hitting mung”--allowing their minds to be completely blank.

A customer in her early thirties says, “I’ve been so tired, and I don’t even have time to space out. After work, I go home, and I have to do housework, and then I barely have 30 minutes to an hour before I need to sleep. I spend that time on my phone. So, with a space like this, I can actually focus on taking a break.”

A business owner reflected, “It made space in my brain. I even read a book, enjoyed the smell of diffusers, looked at flowers, wrote poetry. I started getting new ideas, one by one, and I felt so refreshed.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Work, family, responsibilities constantly ask for our attention. Many can identify with the need for a space to do absolutely nothing. Jesus experienced this and modelled retreating to quiet places to rest and reconnect with his heavenly Father.

In late September, Mike Warner, a photojournalist for Portland’s KATU News, tweeted an announcement: “NO NEWS MONDAY … just a heads up, the @KATUNews morning and afternoon shows have been preempted and will NOT air on Monday, Sep. 27th. The entire news team is attending a seminar to help deal with on-the-job stress and trauma.”

In his explanation, Warner explained that the staff would be watching a presentation from The Poynter Institute, a nonprofit journalism research organization specializing in ethics and leadership. During the Monday timeslots normally dedicated to the day’s news, viewers were given an explanation by KATU staff, who explained, “We’ve taken our employees out of the mix today, to do some training, and to support them while working in this challenging time.”

To underscore how unprecedented a move this was, Warner tweeted an explanation:

In almost 25 years as a photojournalist, I’ve never seen a newsroom do this. But it’s been a crazy time filled with a raging pandemic, out of control violence, political unrest, riots, and ongoing death & destruction. Personally speaking, seeing bodies daily gets to you. #stress

Possible Preaching Angle:

Even professionals at processing and delivering bad news are still human. Even Jesus took time to get away even when there was more work to do. Being a Christian requires that we respect our physical and emotional limits.

Flight delays and cancellations at Reagan National Airport are just about as common as any other airport. So, the cancellation of a JetBlue flight to New York City wouldn’t normally be that surprising. What raised the attention of its passengers was the reason admitted by its pilots. They admitted to being too tired to fly.

Emily Galvin-Almanza was on the jetway when she witnessed the commotion that preceded the announcement of her flight’s cancellation. She said, “The pilots were on the phone, and then they appeared to be in heated conversation with the gate agents for a long time. Then the gate agent came back and told us the flight was canceled because the pilots were tapped out.”

Emily tweeted about the incident, noting the tone of frustration from other would-be passengers. But she had the opposite reaction. “I felt safer knowing the pilots knew when to say they were done, and I'd rather be alive than on time.”

Furthermore, she said she was concerned by what she thought were gate agents trying to dissuade the pilots from their decision. Emily said, “I found that really concerning, actually, since I don't ‘want’ to be on a flight with a tapped-out crew. I was worried they'd un-cancel the flight and put me in an unsafe position.”

Nevertheless, the flight crew remained adamant. In a tweet that received more than 6,000 likes, she expressed her gratitude: “I'm incredibly grateful to them for being honest and not risking my safety to please an angry crowd. Thank you.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

As John Ortberg famously said, sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is take a nap. Being dedicated to the work of God means attending to the needs of body, soul and spirit, and especially getting rest when you need it, so that you can be most effective during your waking hours.