Sabbath Rest: How To Be A Healthier Youth Worker

“Six days a week we wrestle with the world, wringing profit from the earth; on the Sabbath we especially care for the seed of eternity planted in the soul. The world has our hands, but our soul belongs to Someone Else.” – Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

A couple of years ago I got my road bike out and decided to go for a long ride. Part way through I was hit with major exhaustion. I tried to push through it, but I couldn’t. I was a long way from home, at least seven miles, so I knew I had to find he strength to get back on the bike at some point

Then it hit me, “Maybe I’m dehydrated?” Sure enough, I didn’t properly hydrate before getting on the bike and my body was screaming for some water. After I downed nearly both bottles of my water, I felt my strength return. I hopped back on the bike and pedaled my way back home.

Life has a funny way of taking us off the bike, doesn’t it? Especially in youth ministry. Exhaustion hits, we get tired from all the running and the only place we can go is, well, nowhere, except to get off the bike and stop trying so hard.  The harder we try, the more exhausted we become. Now instead of ministering out of a place of God’s abundance we start trying to give from a tank that’s nearly empty. That’s never profitable for anyone.  

A regular rhythm of Sabbath rest keeps youth ministry leaders like you and me in check. It reminds us that the world doesn’t need us to keep producing to be profitable. Sometimes, what the world needs from us is to be still and rest.

 As an overachieving workaholic that’s a hard truth for me to accept. It’s taken me many years of doing it wrong to finally embrace what a weekly Sabbath invites us into- rest with God and others. Sabbath is the drink our soul needs to get back on the bike and keep pedaling forward. It’s God’s way of meeting with us as we allow Him to transform us in a place of rest away from busyness so He can finally fill our lives with more of Him.

 Shalom,

Heather