How to Hustle, Rest, & Worship

We’ve barely just started the school year, but the hustle has begun. School, work, practice, church, errands, meals, emails, volunteering…and by the way, nurture the people you bring and meet in all those places.

My blood pressure just rose to an unhealthy fraction while typing that sentence.

I recently read a fantastic book which beautifully articulates what I have difficulty putting into words. It’s titled The Radical Pursuit of Rest: Escaping the Productivity Trap, and it’s written by Dr. John Koessler. He is chair and professor of pastoral studies at Moody Bible Institute and has written this mercifully short treatise on rest.

Pursuing rest does seem radical, doesn’t it? Counter cultural, maybe? Some might even think it a little rebellious.

We are congratulated when we pursue goals, dreams, careers, achievements, and even volunteerism. All those things are good and laudable. But a constant striving to do, be, produce, and perform is exhausting. Whether at work, school, home or in the church, rest is not rewarding without the gift of work, but work is unsustainable without the gift of rest.

Dr. Koessler writes:

“We need the rest that only Christ can provide. The rest of Christ is both a remedy and a relief. But more than anything else it is a gift.”

The way to rest even with a demanding schedule is to remember that no matter how you “perform” in each of your tasks, Christ has already performed the hardest work on your behalf.

He will rest you.

And after we have received his rest, our most reasonable, natural impulse will be to delight and rest in him.

And sometimes we call that worship.