Resilience

 A few days ago, I hopped on social media to wish my so-called “friends” a Happy Birthday-- Happy 29th to be accurate.  And I scrolled through the birthday folks I noticed an old acquaintance named Charles.   I hadn’t spoken to Charles in years.  He had moved to Ohio to start a new church which went well.  Then he tried a similar project in Utah.  That didn’t go great.  Charles burned out, moved back to the Midwest, dropped out of circulation and fell off the face of the earth.  I clicked on his social media page, perused it and saw nothing mentioning church or Christianity or Jesus.  It appears that Charles fell away.  Charles went from all-in believer to faded out unbeliever.

Why do people fall away?

You’ve seen it. Some folks are at church every Sunday, then less and less and then almost never.  Yoi may have experienced this with family members, or friends or even personally.  Maybe you regressed but are trying to get back on the journey.

Why do individuals burn out, backslide, regress or fall off?  Why do leaders fall away?

Or maybe a better question is how can we prevent ourselves from burning out or backsliding?  How can we keep going?

There are many reasons but this morning we’re going to look at three reasons why folks don’t progress.

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work,  but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns.  For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. –Exodus 20:6-11 (NIV)

He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom.  He stood up to read. –Luke 4:15 (NIV)

As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures. –Acts 17:2 (NIV)

How can we keep from falling away?

1. Practice a rhythm of resting.  Those who fall away typically don’t take time to rest.

He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom.  He stood up to read. –Luke 4:15 (NIV)

“God gives rest to his loved ones.” --Psalm 127:2 (NLT)

Karen Kiyomura made an insightful comment recently.  She said, “If it’s a journey, we need to take time to rest.”

When I was fifteen, I took a journey with my then twenty-year-old brother Mike.  We drove from the Los Angeles area to meet up with relatives in Albuquerque.  We rode in Mike’s old Volkswagen bug.  I was anticipating a fun-filled, bonding road trip with my bro.  But Mike didn’t much talk and we didn’t much stop.  That’s not entirely true.  We stopped twice for a few minutes for gas and took a one-hour cat nap somewhere in Arizona.  No food, I hinted at every restaurant.  No drinks, that would cause bathroom breaks.  No fun.  Brutal.  I asked if I could drive back with some other family members.

If we never rest, we will quit the journey.

I told that story on my brother, now let me tell one on myself.  I way overbooked my last quarter in Seminary.  I was a full-time student; a full-time frozen food manager at Albertsons grocery store; a part-time youth pastor; the interim pastor because the senior leader left; a newlywed—we’d been married eighteen months; and a new father with a five-month-old daughter.

Thursdays were the worst.  I’d work at the store from 2am to 8am; go to class from nine to four; be home for a short bit; then finish with an evening class at the seminary from seven to nine.  Crazy, maybe.  Stupid, yes.

One Thursday I came home and my wife, Lori asked if I would watch our daughter Tricia while Lori went down to the laundry room in our condo complex.  Tricia was swinging in one of those automatic child swings.  I sat down on the couch near her and the next thing I heard was screaming from my daughter and wife.  Tricia’s head had kept smacking the swing, and my wife was angrier at me than she has ever been.

The point is, when we don’t rest, it effects our daughter, and others.

Tricia is okay, in fact she wrote a chapter in the book, “Yet We Still Hope: Stories of Courage from Women Serving Around the World”

Here is a quote:

“It sounds ridiculous, but I think I was scared to stop and rest… But my teammates left me with no other choice. They actually made a game out of guessing whether or not I rested for the full twenty-four hours each week. At our weekly team meetings, my four teammates would each guess if I had fully Sabbathed. We played this game for six months, and the four of them guessed correctly EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. I was starting to see why resting was serious and how my commitment to self-care had a huge impact not just on me but on others too. If my teammates could tell whether or not I was practicing self-care, my students and family and friends probably could too.” –Tricia Chen,  Yet We Still Hope: Stories of Courage from Women Serving Around the World

2. Practice a rhythm of rejoicing.  People who fall away typically don’t take time to celebrate.

The Hebrew word for Sabbath is Shabbat, which can be translated as “to stop” and “to delight,”

Our high school football team was amazing.  We won regularly, often by large margins.   We won an away game 26 to nothing.  I will never forget that score, because when we got on the team bus to drive back to our school, our coach yelled that score over and over again…in disgust.  “We should have beat those losers by twice that, or three times, or 126 to nothing.”  He scolded us the entire ride back.  “No day off tomorrow, you’re going to work so hard this next week…”

You would have thought we lost; there was no joy, no celebration, and my love for playing football began to diminish that evening. 

“God eventually has to command the Sabbath. Does that strike you as odd? It’s like commanding ice cream or live music or beach days. You would think we’d all be chomping at the bit to practice the Sabbath. But apparently there’s something about the human condition that makes us want to hurry our way through life as fast as we possibly can, to rebel against the limitations of time itself.”—John Mark Comer, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry

“I remember talking about this with a close Chinese friend and explaining to her about the importance of rest and how God actually commands us to take a Sabbath day every week. ‘Your God invites you to rest? All the gods I have heard about are demanding and harsh. You are so lucky to follow a God who takes such good care of you and who wants to spend time with you every week. Can you tell me more about Him?’” –Tricia Chen, Yet We Still Hope: Stories of Courage from Women Serving Around the World

We’ve got to take time to celebrate the wins on the journey.

3. Practice a rhythm of reflecting.  People who fall away typically don’t take time to think.

He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom.  He stood up to read. –Luke 4:15 (NIV)

Thinking is not part of our culture these days. 

They say, "Wisdom comes with age," but sometimes age comes alone.

“What luck for rulers that men do not think.”—Adolf Hitler

I’m quoting Adolf Hitler.  Yes, he is right.  We ‘ve stopped thinking, reasoning, pondering and reflecting. 

Our opinions have been assigned to us by the media, podcasts and pundits we align with.  We don’t take time to think; we just assume the beliefs of the talking heads we like. 

That leads to ridiculous ideas and poor theology. 

So instead of thinking, we start worrying.  Do you have anxiety?  Taking a regular Sabbath will help reduce your anxiety.

“God’s Big Picture:  One of my favorite verses in the Bible is when Jesus said, ‘In me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.’—John 16:33, NIV Paraphrased, it says this: ‘When troubling events occur, take heart—and for good reason. It is just one event. The bigger picture is that God has overcome the world and all of its trouble, and he will help you overcome this trouble, too.’ Our journey is much bigger than any one event, and it’s a journey we can successfully complete in the end. We will be victorious if we stay close to God and follow what he tells us to do” --Cloud, Dr. Henry. Never Go Back: 10 Things You'll Never Do Again

How Do We Establish Sabbath Rhythms

Be Intentional

We need to make some plans.  Lily Tomlin admitted, “I always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific.”

Proverbs 21:5 says, “The plans of the diligent lead to profit, surely as haste leads to poverty.”

A day off, a sabbath rest rarely happens by accident.  Ever hear, “Oh wow!  I guess I took yesterday off.”

Culturally, the say off used to be easier.  Every store was Chik-Fil-A:  closed on Sundays.  When I was a small kid in Idaho, everything closed on Sundays.  The library was closed on Sundays and the libary was closed on Sundays.  My Dad always called the liquor store the libary, maybe for libations? 

Now it is difficult.  New York isn’t the only city that never sleeps.  We have to be intentional.

Dan Sullivan asked entrepreneurs, “How many hours do you work in a week?”  The overwhelming number one answer was, “All of them.”   

So, he suggests scheduling three types of days in the calendar:  Free days—days off; Focus days—when we need to be on, to perform; and Buffer days—days we prepare for the free and focus days.

Dan suggests that the more free days you have, the better your focus days will turn out.  And buffer days need to be treated like the last day before vacation when we get everything we can off yur desk.

Be Experimental

“And he said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.'”– Mark 2:27

Find something that works for you.

Here’s a movie that bothers me:  Chariots of Fire.  It’s the true story of Eric Liddell, a devout Scottish Christian refused to run one race in the 1924 Olympics because the race was on a Sunday.

I get the faith piece, sure, but God is not a mean judge demanding, “Don’t you race on Sunday or else!  I suspect God would have been fine with him running.  Just take Monday off!

“In protest, I reminded my teammates of how unforeseen events come up, and sometimes our meticulously planned and protected Sabbaths are canceled anyway. ‘Yes, but you can’t plan to sin. You work hard to protect your rest and then you ask God to give you grace when things don’t work out. But don’t give up on the practice of rest just because you can’t do it perfectly,’ my teammate wisely responded.” –Tricia Chen,  Yet We Still Hope: Stories of Courage from Women Serving Around the World

“The Sabbath is like airplane mode for the soul.”

I ended up making some changes that last quarter in seminary.  I went down to the registrar’s office and asked them what grades I needed to pull to graduate with honors.  It was silly and vain, but I was right on the edge.  The registrar lady told me to wait while she checked.  A minute later she came back to her desk and said. “It’s already done.”

“What’s that now?” I asked.  “We determine honors before your last quarter,” she admitted.  You already have the honors.

We work and push and overcompensate and strive and stress and burnout.  But Jesus says, “It’s already been done.”

Rest, rejoice and reflect.