HOW THE FATHER ENFORCES MY SABBATH-REST by for Servants of Grace
“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”
“Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.”
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We love helping others and believe that’s one of the reasons we are chosen as Ambassadors of the Kingdom, to serve God’s children. We look to the Greatest Commandment as our Powering force.
If you’ve ever driven a go-cart, you’ll know that the buggy will only go so fast. It’s frustrating for Jimmy Johnson wannabes, but:
With the pedal
To the metal,
At that speed
You’ll have to settle.
The reason for this speed limitation is that the engine is rigged with a speed governor; a device regulating how much fuel gets in, in order to limit acceleration. That governor means that there’s nothing you can do about it. Go-cart #48 is not going to go any faster no matter how hard you press it to the floor.
God has given me a speed governor. I have had a constant 24/7/365 headache (due to nerve damage from a vicious bout with viral meningitis) for the last 32 years. My discomfort stays at a constant 6-8 level on the 0-10 pain Richter scale. Functioning as my speed governor, this inescapable pain regulates (and depletes) energy flow in my body, keeping me from exceeding a healthy speed in life.
With my headache, if I race and chase without rest, I crash and burn. Excessive ministry labor for even 36-48 hours comes with a pain and exhaustion price tag that I simply cannot afford. Add to it some severe back pain in more recent time—due to three herniated discs and six bulging ones—and one can only assume that in the Father’s mind, my need for a speed governor has not passed.
As many would know—and contrary to how people joke—faithful pastors don’t work just one day a week. They have to exert an almost superhuman will to keep from working seven days a week. Through 38 years of ministry, I’ve averaged around 55-57 hours of ministry per week. But even with that, I still end each week with a list of ministry and people needs easily as long as the list I just completed. My temptation is not laziness. It is the idolatry of busyness and self-importance, the vanity of trying to be omnipresent and omni-competent for everybody.
Many pastors are like me in this. They mistake busyness for faithfulness; when one is definitely not the other. Commitment and compulsiveness are not the same. Failure to realize this has caused many gospel ministers to kill their souls and damage their families by over-work. Preachers’ kids grow up to hate the church because their dads were there for the church more than for their families. Children, wives, and spiritual health all become collateral damage. Spiritual burnout and relational devastation are so common as to no longer surprise.
