I don’t know what to say about rest… other than I should probably not be talking about it.

I do sleep… and I take naps. Sometimes people wonder if I do… but I do. Based on convos I have with people around me, I evidently need less rest than most to feel solid and energized.

But nonetheless, it is true too that I suck at rest. There, I said it. And since it’s 11:23pm and I have an early morning run tomorrow on my exercise plan, I’m gonna make this post brief before it becomes too self-prophetic or demoralizing.

I will also say that I have a strong aversion to laziness, and I think some have confused rest with apathy.  But for those who have not, I have a lot to learn from you… something I’m working on practically setting aside time for in the coming weeks as I enter this 39th year of my life.

Here’s my definition of rest I’m working on:

REST IS the refusal to keep moving without pausing to replenish both body and soul.

Are you good at rest?  For me, I think it is a rhythm, an additional rule of life per se, that I desperately need.  This, in my mind, is a baby step towards a true Sabbath… something I really have never practiced well.  I don’t say that with pride, but rather a fear that it is something I have missed for decades now.  Both rest and Sabbath are desperately needed in my life and I need to be very intentional about it.  I’m starting with saying no to some stuff and choosing to close my eyes and lay on the floor and do nothing in moments throughout my day.  I’m kinda digging the floor and grass and even the sidewalk outside my office in the warm sun these days.

I’m striving to lean into and learn what it means to honor God like this in one single block of time, slowing down to rest and enjoy God, not feed my own desire or the desires of others for more more more.  I’m learning. I evidently missed the nap time lesson in kindergarten.  I’m gonna try and make up for lost time in the next 3 months.

This week, I’m trying to flush out 3 spiritual desires inside me that I felt like I really needed to work on in the next 3 months between my birthday and my wedding anniversary.

The first is called a “RULE FOR LIFE“.  Essentially this “rule” is not really just one practice, but rather a set of practices or spiritual rhythms that someone decides are necessary for their own continual spiritual growth.  They must be intentional and purposeful.  Made famous by The Rule of Saint Benedict that was some 73 chapters long… mine will be much shorter than that.

The Spiritual Disciplines Handbook that I’m using for class suggests that a Rule  For Life will “honor your limits and God-given longings. It goes against grandiosity and must be written for who you are, not for who you aren’t.”  It also says that it can change and adjust as you do, but not like on a whim.  It also should not be a legalistic set of rules, but instead a set of agreements that help you to say yes to what is most important and no to what is not. It is a plumb line, allowing you a central focus point from which you can intentionally evaluate your spiritual journey.

I wrote a set of personal core values about a year ago.  I think a Rule For Life is essentially the flushing out of how I’m going to do the first two.

1. PLEASE GOD, NOT PEOPLE.
2. TAKE CARE OF MY SOUL AND MY FAMILY BEFORE MY MINISTRY.

I think that leaders are learners.

I think that leaders must be applying their learning to their own life first.

I want to be that kind of leader.

In order to apply my own learnings to my own life, I have discovered I need at least quarterly evaluation points or my learnings just become something of my past.  I have decided that there are some natural and some local mile markers in my own life that I want to utilize for this purpose.

• January 1- a new year
• April 11- my birthday
• June 25- my wedding anniversary
• September- labor day which is the day Jake was born on and is an easy day to mark the fall quarter.

• we had a physical fitness trainer and nutritionist come and talk with our high school and college students on Sunday afternoon about the Biblical mandate to take care of our bodies. It was a great reminder and even had some information that was new to me.  The most revealing of which was that he said that 80% of our diseases and physical ailments in America are actually a result of choices.  If that is true, then the logical conclusion is that I’m choosing the condition of my body, how much energy I have, and even what will eventually kill me based on three factors he said:  

1. MY EATING HABITS: 
2. MY EXERCISE HABITS
3. MY REST PATTERNS

• Chew on that for a while.  What you eat and how you exercise and how you rest are determining how long you’ll live and what you’ll eventually die from… 80% of the time. 
• He also gave each of our students a customizable 30 day online eating and exercise plan that I’m going to use this season of my life to dive into.  I’m kinda stoked about how that could actually change my life.  But the truth is, it’s time to practice what is not really knew news to me. But at 39 the next phase of my life is directly being affected by the choices I am making today.  And I have some big goals that are gonna require a healthy me.  From my end, I need to do my part.  Game on. 

2. A SPIRITUAL FORMATION CLASS:

I’m taking a class for seminary that uses this book as it’s main text.  

My family showed up to church today in shoes.

I made a decision to follow Jesus as a freshmen in high school at Neighborhood Church in Castro Valley. I then eventually married my high school sweetheart who also went to Omega, the youth group there that literally taught me what a real youth ministry looked like.  I am who I am today because of the seeds God planted through that church in my life.

I then was 21 when I spoke at a water ski trip for a church in Fremont via a referral from my old youth pastor, Mark Tyler.  That led to my first full time youth ministry position where I stayed for 11 years.

Now, 25 years after I first stepped foot in Omega, I’m headed back to join old friends, my old youth pastor, and a great mens ministry led by an amazing friend for a retreat at Alliance Redwoods on May 20-22, 2011.  I’m stoked to return to the conference grounds where I’ve spent a decade of my life running a week of summer camp and to teach on some stuff I’m passionate about and can’t wait to see men grab hold of.  Dang, I can’t wait.