You Need to Take a Break

Many people are driven by the fear of having a useless life that has no meaning and no significance. It drives many people to overwork and lead undue stressful lives. God never meant for us to have this empty feeling of insignificance and fear, for to have a life of meaning allows people to relax and be content with their lives. This empowers people to have energy for living positive and productive lives. However, in order to have significance you need to have evidence that your life has made a difference. How would you define having a fruitful and meaningful life? For many, it is to accumulate lots of material possessions and for others it means living a life of service to others. However you define “significance” will mold your daily lives, and it can over extend your body energy reserves and build a mentality of desperation!

For men, work can be a means of attaining significance and meaning, and when a person retires they are left in limbo of what to do next. Life can just be one day passing after another without meaning or accomplishment. This can be stressful to people, who are used to going to work everyday and are now without this activity that defines who they are. As strange as it may sound, their daily routine can become a replacement for their work schedule, but they never experience the relief of a day off. One day just blends into another. This can be exhausting and stressful to the body and the mind. People need a break; even people who are retired. This fact also applies to people with repititious or sustained job functions. People need to take a break to recharge their lives.

The Lord took time off (Mark 1:35-37), and told his disciples to take time off (Mark 6:30-32). Jesus knew that people need to have time off to lead fruitful lives; even from the most meaningful activities. God designed us to be productive, but part of being productive is following a routine of structured work and rest cycles. A day of rest does not have to be a day of doing nothing; it just has to be a day of change from a regular routine. The Scriptures tell us to be productive and “bear fruit” with our lives, but it also commands us to have periods of rest (John 15:1-8). The idea of the Sabbath is a point-in-fact of this concept of rest being beneficial to our daily lives. In Genesis even God took a day off, after a heavy work week. This does not mean he did nothing, it just meant he did something different that day. Since we are created in God’s image, we too need to develop a routine of structured work and rest times. It has been said that change is as good as a rest. We need to be creative in planning our rest periods. Carelessness in this will lead to “burn out.”