So we approach the holiday season when, hopefully, we’ll have the opportunity to take our foot off the gas a little and step back from the usual things of our lives. Whether the “usual things” are a full time job coupled with the struggle to maintain a balanced home/family life, or perhaps being home based looking after children, or perhaps dealing with the (busy?) schedule of retirement, or something in between all these scenarios, it’s always good to have a change in routine – a time when you can give space to something different.  Sometimes you find the space achieved – getting off the treadmill – allows you to reflect on life in general, and maybe come to some conclusions about the things that are good, and not so good, in our lives. The space to think might lead you to embark upon a change for the future – it can be both a creative and risky process!

One of the things that strikes me about the gospels and the life of Jesus is that he regularly took time out from the busyness of life. Quite often Jesus would withdraw from all that was going on, even from what would seem the most important work of teaching or healing people, in order to be alone, rest, and (as we understand it) be in prayer to his Father. I guess that even though Jesus was divine and having all Godly power available to him, he still existed within a human body while walking the earth, and human bodies and minds need rest and withdrawal from the daily demands if we are to maintain poise and balance. While a sense of purpose in life is helpful, continual demands, work and striving can lead to stress and burn-out, and from a biblical perspective is not part of God’s design for our bodies or lives.

Another thing that intrigues me, again from a biblical perspective, is that whereas we tend to consider a day as starting with the morning, in biblical parlance a day starts in the evening. Right at the start of the bible you have the book of Genesis, and in chapter 1, verse 5, it reads, “And there was evening and there was morning, the first day”. So the pattern was set that a day starts in the evening – with rest, family time, sleep – and only after these things would you then contemplate morning and the task of work. The priority seems to be rest, and when rested then do your work. That’s a stark contrast with our worldly norm of work first, rest later, or work till you drop. Perhaps instinctively we know that we work best when we enter into it feeling rested and at peace, but putting it into practice can take some determination, and perhaps even some changes in our routines and lifestyle.

So, whatever the holiday season brings for you, I hope that you get the space for rest and relaxation – a change to the usual pattern of life, and within that space the opportunity to ponder and reflect on life at the moment: is it all that you would have it be? Rest and thinking can be risky, but they may lead you on to better things.

Rev. Tony Stephens