The Key to Doing More: Slow Down
I have been accused of being a workaholic. I’m not. Far from it. But I do lead a busy and full life: My full-time role is leading an incredible team to create Bible studies. I teach a class. I preach every week. I read six books every month. I write two articles every week. And on Saturdays, I help my son with a kitchen remodel.
Along the way, friends at church will say, “There’s no way I could do what you do. How do you find the time?”
Here’s the secret: I rest.
Ironic, huh?
I’m referring to a Sabbath-rest, an intentional time to slow down and focus on God. In our modern culture, we’ve lost the ability to slow down and not do anything—or we think we have lost the ability. I can already hear some of your comments: “I don’t have that kind of time. I’m juggling work with the constant call to take my kids to school, to games, and to church. And then there’s the …” I don’t doubt you’re busy. There are many tasks and responsibilities you can’t set aside.
But you can still take a Sabbath-rest because of two things:
- You have more discretionary time than you think. We spend more time than we care to admit on our phones, scrolling through social media or Reddit, and vegging out in front of the TV.
- We always find time for what’s important to us. The problem is that we give lip service to the importance of time with God, but we don’t really give it the time. Yet those things we really want to do? Hmm, somehow we find the time.
Most of us are familiar with what the Ten Commandments say about rest and worship.
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy… the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God” (Ex. 20:8,10).
When it comes to “keeping the Sabbath,” we fall into two extremes. Some among us follow that command legalistically, like a modern-day Pharisee who doesn’t do anything on Sunday except watch religious programming. Where most of us fall, however, is at the other extreme: we ignore the command altogether. We’re content that we’ve honored this command by showing up for a church service. That’s sad because either approach misses the beauty and benefit of this command.
The command about a Sabbath rest is the fourth command for a reason. It is a natural outgrowth of the first three commands about our relationship with God.
- Commandment #1. There is no other God, and He alone deserves our worship.
- Commandment #2. Don’t look to some image or trinket to capture all the majesty and power of who God is.
- Commandment #3. Treat God’s name with love and respect in both your words and actions.
When our focus is on God, and we see Him as He truly is, we are drawn to worship Him. We are drawn to lay everything else aside for the moment and simply worship. Dallas Willard said it so much better:
“Sabbath fulfilled in human life is really celebration of God. Sabbath is inseparable from worship, and, indeed, genuine worship is Sabbath. As the fourth commandment, Sabbath is the fulfillment in practice of the first three. When we come to the place where we can joyously “do no work” it will be because God is so exalted in our minds and bodies that we can trust him with our life and our world and can take our hands off of them.”[1]
I have found worship to be restful! When I rest in God, blocking out all else each morning, my life is centered where it should be. For that reason, I have made the principle of a Sabbath-rest a part of every day, not just Sunday. Each morning, I spend time reading the Word and praying about I read. I read books that challenge or encourage my walk with God. I haven’t “lost” an hour; quite the opposite. Through the rest, quiet, and worship, I gain—and I am more productive with the rest of my day.
That investment of time in worship and rest comes back to me—and more so. It has become my favorite part of the day.
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[1] Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart (NavPress, 2002), chapter 9.
[2] Pensées, Blaise Pascal (“Diversion,” subsection 135).
