A lecturer raised a glass of water and asked, “How heavy is this glass of water?” Audience members called out answers ranging from 20g to 500g (less than one ounce to more than one pound). The lecturer replied, “The absolute weight doesn’t matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it. If I hold it for a minute, that’s not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I’ll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you’ll have to call an ambulance. In each case, it’s the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.”
“And that’s the way it is with stress,” he continued. “If we carry our burdens all the time, they become increasingly heavy, and we won’t be able to carry on. As with the glass of water, we have to put our burdens down for a while and rest before picking them up again. When we’re refreshed, we can carry on with our burdens.”
“And that’s the way it is with stress,” he continued. “If we carry our burdens all the time, they become increasingly heavy, and we won’t be able to carry on. As with the glass of water, we have to put our burdens down for a while and rest before picking them up again. When we’re refreshed, we can carry on with our burdens.”
This health concept was best exemplified by Christ Himself. He had a perfect sense of when to serve and minister to others and when to stop and rest. In Mark 1:35-38, we read about a time when the crowd was looking for Jesus, seeking to be healed, to listen to His words, to be in His presence. But after a long day of ministering to their needs, Christ woke up early the next day to rest and commune with God. When the disciples found Him praying and resting under a tree, they told Him, “Master, the multitude is looking for you.” Instead of going to attend to the needs of the crowd, Jesus instead decided to leave and go to another town. One may wonder how He could leave that needy multitude, but Jesus knew His mission, and the Holy Spirit revealed to Him daily when to say “Yes” and when to say “No” when He rested in God’s presence. God gave Him the necessary wisdom to know when it was time to “put the glass down” for a while before taking it up again.
We all believe that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit and that we must “glorify God with our body” (1 Cor. 6:19, 20), but it is easy to be so engaged in ministry and service for Him that we forget the principle of rest for the mind, body, and soul. God never asked us to sacrifice our health and our families to His service. Instead, He created us to live balanced, full, and abundant lives (John 10:10). To achieve that kind of life, we must take time to rest, to enjoy His presence alone, and to enjoy the companionship of our family and loved ones. That is an important part of our ministry. We are reminded today to follow Jesus’ example to “put our worries and our work for Him down for a while,” seeking rest in His presence. We can pick up our tasks tomorrow or the day after, reenergized and better prepared to fulfill our mission and glorify Him with our bodies.
Katia Reinert
Family Nurse Practitioner at Washington Adventist Hospital in Maryland, USA
