I’m not Superman nor am I suppose to be. I think myself and people in general [especially those in leadership] can often forget this. As schedules pick up our initial reaction is to push through and not retreat. You know that you need to rest, but you don’t know what to sacrifice. People fight for your time and attention while the lover of your soul stands there in neglect. Funny thing is the people you are meeting with want your spiritual wisdom, yet how are you to give wisdom if you are not spending time with the One who gives wisdom? This is something I’ve been battling. The battle of rest. In particular, resting in God’s presence.
Ever since being raised up to Squad Leader and growing in leadership my responsibilities have greatly increased. Mainly, caring for and leading 37 people on this journey. There are many days it doesn’t seem like there is enough time in the day to have the conversations I want to have/ do the things I need to do. Come the end of month 6 in China I was beat. I needed rest, but I wanted [more like felt like I needed] to be with people. That is when I stumbled across Luke 5:15-16:
But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. But he [Jesus] would withdraw to desolate places and pray. –Luke 5:15-16
Did you catch that?? More reports were going abroad and great crowds were gathering! Jesus’ ministry was growing, but as his ministry was growing what was his first action? To withdraw. Jesus, the Word that became flesh, the one whom all was created through, the son of God, our Savior and King, withdrew when his ministry increased. If anyone were to just push through and not rest you’d think it would be Jesus. Why didn’t he just heal and preach on the word right there? I think it was because he knew whose mission he was on.
So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. John 5:19
It didn’t matter how much his ministry was growing he knew he could only do what he saw the Father doing. He wasn’t worried about doing what would make him seem like superman, He wanted to do what the Father commanded. We often need to evaluate if we are more worried about our ministry or the One receiving glory from our ministry. He is the one who makes us competent ministers [2 Corinthians 3:6], he is the vine that produces the fruit [John 15]. If that is true, then if we desire wisdom for the ones we lead we need to spend time with the one who gives wisdom, if we want to see healing in our families we need to seek Him who is the Great Physician, if want to play a part in our friends freedom we need to spend time with the one who holds the keys to freedom.
Warning: This could include saying no to some people so that you may spend time with the Father who gives freely to His children.
Now I think Jesus didn’t completely abandon those people. I think he went to spend time with the Father alone and then came back to them [Luke 5:17 says “On one of those days..” eluding to one of those days he withdrew for prayer]. But you have to think at first those people were a little hurt. They traveled all that way to see Jesus and I’m sure at first to them it seemed like he threw up the peace sign and headed out. They had to feel rejected. However, that is simply the flesh perspective. From the grand scheme of things it was probably the most beneficial thing for them. One would have to assume Jesus was able to minister to those people in a much more effective way after spending time with the Father. If that is true it must be the same way with us. Healthy ministry stems from healthy time with the Lord, and I think part of healthy time with The Lord is resting in his presence.
So brothers and sisters as our ministry grows and our responsibility grows, let us not keeping saying I’ll rest tomorrow because tomorrow something else will pop up. Let us learn to rest daily. White knuckling the people you lead doesn’t help you or them. Seek rest, seek The Father’s presence. Our friends and family will survive without us, but they could really benefit from a well-rested you and me.
