I haven’t written a blog post in quite some time for one specific reason. I haven’t had a day off of work since February 5th. After that I preached the weekend of February 6th and 7th and then started a new job at Kohler on Monday the 8th. The story of how I got to the place I am now, where I am both a pastor and a training specialist, is an interesting one. However, that will have to be a story for another day.
I consider myself a strong man, hard worker, and emotionally intelligent individual. However, within the past 43 days I have come home crying at the end of the day. Don’t get me wrong, there wasn’t anything terrible that happened to me. I didn’t get in a car accident (although that did almost happen). I didn’t receive any bad news. I wasn’t part of any conflicts.
What did happen was I began to run out of physical and emotional energy. I wasn’t participating in one of the most basic and known practices on earth. I wasn’t resting. It didn’t take me long to realize that what I was doing was not sustainable. Fortunately, today I have the day off and I have every Saturday off from now on.
I can’t even begin to describe how blessed I am to work for a boss who not only wants to see me win at work, but also at home. He sat across the table from me and told me that he wanted me to have balance, to have a healthy marriage, to have rest. I am so thankful to work with a awesome team of people who empathize with my situation and who are willing to help and support me.
I am positive that there are others who have gone longer than I have without a day of rest. I am sure we could create a leaderboard and record book, but why would we. This is nothing to be celebrated. It isn’t something to be proud of. If you are not currently taking a day of rest and making it a priority, I can’t encourage you enough to make a change.