“Rest time is not waste time. It is economy to gather fresh strength… It is wisdom to take occasional furlough. In the long run, we shall do more by sometimes doing less.”
–Charles Spurgeon [1]
“At one point, I was a youth pastor, professional sign language interpreter, wedding photographer, radio host, husband, and father – in that order…” Steve Austin said in his Huffington post article, “I figured my wife must be so proud. Look at all I was doing for the church! Yet, in having no personal boundaries, I was building walls. I was keeping the people who loved me the most at a distance. I didn’t know it was okay, and even appropriate, to tell others, ‘no.’ To schedule a day off. To turn off my phone. To spend my evening with the ones who longed for my affection and attention more than I could possibly understand.
Eventually, the stress was more than I could bear, and I tried to kill myself.” [2]
What is the difference between selfishness and self-care? Is it OK for Christian ministers to take vacations, or to do things just for fun?
Many secular people put a priority on doing whatever makes them happy. Many who don’t like a relationship or a situation will leave. They’ll spend all their energy and resources on self-indulgence. Religious people, on the other hand, often practice self-denial to the point of exhausting themselves and completely burning out.
Steve Austin’s story is, unfortunately, a very common one. There is a dangerous and unbiblical idea carried among many communities of Christian ministers (although usually it’s carried subconsciously). That idea is that the more we give, serve and minister, the more valuable we are. What we sometimes believe is giving is, in reality, us doing things to achieve a sense of self-worth. Countless ministers neglect their health, their family and even their relationship with God in order to serve and minister.
We must understand that self-care is not selfishness and it’s important for us to know the difference. At times, it’s undeniably hard to discern the difference, and that’s why we need the Holy Spirit to give us wisdom. Twice so far my husband and I have taken time to vacation in Thailand at a Christian retreat center called, “The Juniper Tree.” This retreat center aims to refresh expats and ministers, and gets its name from this passage in 1 Kings 19:
1 Kings 19:1-8 (ESV)
Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.
But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” And he lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.” And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank and lay down again. And the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.” And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God.
(The broom tree in verse 5 is also called a juniper tree in other translations. Here’s to knowing your biblical shrubs. 🙂 )
We as Christians have faced some (if not all) of what Elijah faced at one time or another. Depression, discouragement physical exhaustion, persecution are things many of us have experienced. Elijah just wanted to die, and many of us can relate to that. But the Lord didn’t tell him, “Why are you talking like that? Don’t be a whiny baby! You’re a man of God — you should be stronger!”
Instead, God allowed him to sleep under a juniper tree. And God didn’t simply give him a break, He actually sent an angel to feed him and encourage him. The angel said, “The journey is too great for you,” so we see here that God was compassionate and empathetic to Elijah and understood that he had limitations as a human. Instead of pushing Elijah farther, He allowed him to be refreshed and nourished before he continued on his journey.
Jesus also took time away from His ministry for self-care. Luke 5:15-16 says, “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 would withdraw to desolate places and pray.”
Jesus Himself understood the importance of taking time to be alone with The Father, rest and pray to have His soul fed.
Self-care is a responsibility. Jesus said to, “love your neighbor as yourself,” and I think that also means that you should, “love yourself just as you love your neighbor.” What if you loved yourself in the same way you would love another person important to you? You would not pour all of your resources into another person, because that would be like worshiping them. But then of course if you love this person you will do your best to meet their needs.
Even those who sacrifice themselves for the gospel and face heavy persecution may still practice self-care to an extent and find peace by using what God gives them. It’s scary and seemingly impossible to rest in the Lord during these hard times. However Jesus promised in in Matthew 11:28, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Chinese evangelist Brother Yun experienced the power of the Holy Spirit after he was beaten and imprisoned in Myanmar. In his book, “Living Water,” Brother Yun writes,
“It is easy to be deceived when we place ministry in a higher position than it ought to be. Even when I was burned out and giving stale messages, people were still applauding me, even though I was operating outside of the fresh anointing of th Holy Spirit. We can trick ourselves into thinking everything is all right, because the people seem to be blessed by what we have to say. One day I was boarding an airplane to go to my next series of meetings when the Lord clearly told me, ‘I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place.’ (Rev. 2:4-5)
The Lord saw that I needed a rest, and He arranged it in a way that only He could. I was arrested in the nation of Myanmar, beaten and sentenced to even years in prison because of my disobedience to the Holy Spirit. In prison, the Lord showed me that my life was getting out of control and I needed to slow down. This was the second time He allowed me to have a holiday in prison while I learned to renew my relationship with the Lord Jesus.
After I left China, I discovered that pastors in the West have Mondays off and go on summer holidays every year. In China the believers have no opportunity to take holidays, so the Lord graciously becomes our travel agent and books us in for a much-needed rest at a prison.” [3]
Brother Yun experienced God’s promise in Exodus 33:14, “And he said, ‘My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.'” Although he was imprisoned, he took his terrible circumstance as an opportunity to rest in the Lord. God soon blessed his humble heart and allowed him to be released from prison early. Many of us, however, have freedom and easy opportunities to take time off from our work and ministry — and it’s very important that we do so. Resting in the Lord and practicing self-care forces us to remember that we cannot control the world, nor can we save the world by our works, because we are only human. Practicing self-care and resting allows us to say, “God, I have limitations. I can’t be there for everyone all the time, so I trust you to take care of all the work which I am unable to do.” This is the reason God told His people to take a Sabbath, and it wasn’t just a suggestion — it was a command! (See Exodus 20:8-11 and Deuteronomy 5:12-15.)
We don’t live to make ourselves happy, and Christianity will certainly take us far outside of our comfort zone. But we’re to be stewards of our time, our money, and of ourselves. We must take care of ourselves to be at our best in God’s kingdom. It’s no sin to accept any gift or opportunity for a vacation which God has given you.
So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.
Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.
— Hebrews 4:9-11
Sources:
[1] Spurgeon, Charles. The Minister’s Fainting Fits, Lectures to My Students, Lecture XI, 1856.
[2] Austin, Steve. “3 Examples of Self-Care in the Bible.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 18 Nov. 2016, www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-austin/3-examples-of-selfcare-in_b_13073572.html.
[3] Yun, Brother. “The Person God Uses.” Living Water, edited by Paul Hattaway, Ndervan, 2008, pp. 68–69.
Anna Sojourning 