My brain is a little fuzzed this evening. The way things have worked out recently, proper days off don’t come easily, I have to properly plan them in. I’m sure I’m not alone in that. It is so easy to be tempted into working, either for our paid job if we are fortunate enough to have one or for somewhere we volunteer our time. In fact, it is almost cultural to be busy all the time, and taking time out can feel looked down upon.
But Jesus took time out – he often retreated to spend time in prayer and his disciples had to go looking for him. And in the creation story, God set a day aside to rest and look over all he had done. Constantly doing stuff is not a biblical principle and also probably isn’t healthy.
Being busy is a good escape and distraction from things we don’t want to face. It is a good way to give ourselves a sense of worth and accomplishment, albeit temporary. But the thing is, we can’t keep it up forever. Sooner or later something will come up that is outside of our control – maybe we will end up ill, or the place we are being busy at will be closed for some reason – and we will find ourselves with time in our hands and those things we’ve been running from catch up, or our sense of worth has nothing to latch on to and we plummet emotionally.
The psalmist says time and again to rest, to ‘Be Still’, to ‘Wait for the Lord’. Maybe what some of us need this lent is to slow down, to take time out. Listen to your body, listen to your brain and listen to your heart. If anyone of them feels tired or ‘fuzzy’, maybe you need to take a Time Out and refresh yourself somehow, with a coffee, and good book, a walk – something that is definitely not work.
If Jesus could find time to take a Time Out, I think we should make time too.
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