The Need To Slow Down

“The Need To Slow Down”

By Zach Wood

Matthew 11:28

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

It’s no surprise we have so many people in the world today who are tired.  They are tired from many things: work, family, friends, extracurricular activities, church functions, etc.  The list could go on and on with how incredibly busy some people have become.  This past Sunday we had a sermon talking about how we need to slow our lives down more and take the time to relax. 

So many of us these days are in a rush mode and we don’t stop.  It’s not that we don’t want to, but we have such busy lives that we feel we just need to keep going and going, just like the energizer bunny.  But you know what?  Even the battery in that bunny will soon lose its power and need a new one.  We all need replenishing and a constant, busy lifestyle is not helping. 

It’s hard to know the balance of when to be busy and when to rest.  Often, we feel guilty if we do rest.  We don’t feel productive just sitting around, but it’s something our bodies desperately need to become recharged.  We’re in a society that focuses so much on consuming more caffeine, pills and other things to keep our bodies going.  What our bodies need is real rest.  We were not meant to be on the go every waking moment, but often we are.

I would like to encourage all of us, in this fast-paced world, to take Jesus’ words to heart.  He is serious about us coming to Him, laying our lives before Him and getting the rest we need from the weary lives we often have.   Sometimes the most productive thing we can do is to take a time of rest, whenever that is.  Daily would be good.  It’s not healthy to run, run, run all day long and get very little sleep.  We just burn ourselves out.  Where’s the balance?  Hard question. 

We need to take notice each day of Jesus’ invitation to get the rest our bodies need so that we can be replenished.  He invites us to come to Him and rest.