Vision and Direction Summer 2000

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I felt spent and discouraged. On my desk was the usual pile. There were a half-dozen phone messages, one from a disgruntled parent whom I would need to soothe. Beside that stack lay a heap of receipts from Saturday's event that needed to be organized, categorized, and justified. And off to the side waited the reference books and notes for this week's youth message.

The pile was no larger than any other week, but somehow that day it seemed impossible to face. I felt as if I'd been running this race forever, and running it in hip-deep mud. Then I realized I had not had a real day off in more than two months.

I know I need rest for the sake of my family and my health, but so many things fight against it. There are so many hurting people, so many expectations, so much to be done.

I found out that I was not the only pastor who struggled with this.

At a conference on marriage and ministry, the leader separated pastors from their spouses. Each group was asked to name ten barriers to intimacy. Both groups ranked the lack of consistent time off from the ministry as one of their top three problems.

Another time I brought up the subject in an e-mail forum for youth pastors and sparked a lively discussion. One colleague from Scotland wrote, "It is hard to take a day off, and you feel guilty when you do. With me, it's a case of so much to do and so little time to do it."

I was convinced that I needed to take one day off every week. The precedent is biblical. Saturday seemed like the logical choice. The kids were out of school and there wasn't anything regularly scheduled on the church calendar. So I tried that for a while. But I began to notice that, even with my renewed resolve, I was still missing many days off. Special ...

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