Getting Some Rest This Labor Day Weekend

Oregon was the first state to recognize it in 1887. It became a federal holiday in 1894. Always the first Monday in September, Labor Day recognizes the contributions and achievements of American workers.

Labor Day Parade, New York City

It means something different today than it did one hundred and twenty years ago. Today most consider Labor Day weekend the end of summer, the start of football season, an opportunity to get a few things done around the house, or a long weekend. The aroma of grilled hamburgers and hot dogs is more prevalent on Labor Day than any other Monday of the year. Parks are filled with people. The kids enjoy a day off from school. 

The English word labor is from the Latin word laborare. It means manual or physical work. To toil, struggle, have difficulty. We can understand why a woman having a baby is called labor. We can also understand why coal miners and steel workers and railroad builders used to march in parades in early September. The industrialization and modernization of America happened because of their sweat. 

Jesus was aware of labor. Physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual labor. He knew life wasn’t easy. It wasn’t easy for the people he related to in the Middle East twenty centuries ago and life remains a challenge for people today. We are tired, stressed out, hurting, over-committed, under-resourced, facing difficulties, lonely, and struggling. Many of us are like this some of the time and some of us are like this much of the time. 

Jesus makes an invitation us: Come to me. All of you who labor and carry heavy burdens. If you are tired or burned out, come to me. And I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)

Balance and Harmony

The Greek word Jesus uses is ἀναπαύσω which is a little different than our word rest. Rest to us might be laying on a couch in front of a television or dreaming of being in a cabin in mountains or by a lake. Webster even describes rest as “freedom from labor.” Jesus didn’t see rest as inactivity, rather he uses ἀναπαύσω which implies balance, especially in life’s essential areas of imagination, physical wellness, mental wholeness, relational harmony, and spiritual solidarity with God. Jesus is not promising us life is going to be perfect, but he is promising us his presence and his participation in our lives. 

This Labor Day weekend, take Jesus up on his offer. Slow down a bit. Realize life isn’t about what we do, but who we are. Go to him. Pray. Give him some of your hurts and some of your burdens. Read a few chapters of one of the Gospels. Journey with Jesus and accept his gifts of balance, harmony, rest, and grace. 

Happy Labor Day, 

Craig

Balance, Part 3: Sermon + Notes

Nine questions to determine if you are out of balance

Are you frequently getting angry with others? Or, are you becoming impatient with others. Especially those you love? 

Do you have trouble sleeping because thoughts are racing through your head?

Are you always trying to prove your worth to others? Are you always trying to please others? 

Do you focus too much energy and spend too much time trying to get things to be just perfect? 

Would you describe yourself as “way too busy”? 

Do you ever wake up and just wish the day was already over? 

Do you beat yourself up over past mistakes and failures? 

Do you drink or eat or take pills or shop or whatever to escape from reality? 

Do you feel unfulfilled? 

If you answered “yes” to just a few of these, then there is a pretty good chance your life is out of balance. 

Eight ways to develop more balance in life

1. If your life is out of balance it won’t get back into balance on accident.

When you fail to plan you are planning to fail 

2. Put God first 

Read Matthew 6:33

We are created to live in a relationship with God 

Do you want to be proactive and develop it now or try to develop it when you need it? 

3. Don’t conform to the patterns of the world 

Read Romans 12:2

Be a little weird. Be a little different. Don’t worry about being normal because normal isn’t working! 

4. Say “no” to mediocre things and pretty good things and good things so that you can say “yes” to the best 

Read Luke 10:38-42

5. Determine your values and vision 

6. Develop and display – Character and Integrity 

Romans 5:3 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. 5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. 

Tough times will come. 

Tough times don’t last, but tough people do. 

Tough times simultaneously develop and reveal our character. 

Character – Who you are when nobody is looking 

Integrity – Who you are when you are under stress 

Our lack of character and integrity make our life out of balance.

Read Psalm 51

7. Develop and display a life of gratitude and thanksgiving 

8. Forgiveness

Read Romans 5 

When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation.

Prayer for Balance - Legible

A few of you had a tough time reading the prayer from yesterday. I have never been accused of having good handwriting and it was a full page of words. I hope you find this prayer helpful.

Hectic. Rushed. Worried. 

Stressed. Cluttered. Burdened. 

Lonely. Tired. Complex. 

It is my life but not Your plan for my life. 

By your grace, become the priority and passion of my life. 

When I lack – You sustain. 

When I am alone – You are present. 

When I am overwhelmed – You are my help. 

When I am defeated – You are my hope. 

You provide my needs. 

Faith. Family. Friends. 

Work. Wellness. Wealth. 

Sleep. School. Spending. 

I am pulled in all directions. Pull me in Your direction. 

I confess I have made choices that have caused me to lose balance. 

Forgive me when these choices have been intentional. 

I live in an imperfect world that makes balanced living difficult. 

Give me wisdom not to conform to the patterns of the world but to be transformed by the Gospel. 

I pray for organization in the details of life. 

My distractions on non-essentials are many. I pray for focus on the essential things of life. 

Help me give my time, energy, and resources to the important – not the urgent.

Help me say “no” to mediocre or even good things so I can say “yes” to the best.

Let me embrace simplicity and flexibility rather than complexity and rigidness.

Give me clear purposes in life. I want to love and be loved by You. 

Make my relationships be life-giving and joyful for me and for those I relate to.

Help me love like you and extend my hand in service to those around me. 

I am a sinner. Lead me to experience your forgiveness and to share forgiveness with others. 

I am jealous and envious. Fill me with thankfulness and gratitude. 

I have neglected my body. Help me take care of myself through exercise, nutrition, and rest. 

I have let my work become my life. Allow me to see that my value comes from You. 

I am unbalanced. It is my life but not Your plan for my life. 

I am pulled in all directions. Pull me in your direction. 

Give me harmony and peace. 

Give me grace and balance. 

In the name of Jesus I pray, 

Amen.

Prayer for Balance

Saying No and Saying Yes

A video of Sunday's sermon. Part 2 in a series on balance in life.

Luke 10:38-42

As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. Her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he taught. But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, “Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.” But the Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Focus and Priority

A video of yesterday's sermon. It was the first message in the three part series on balance. Jesus says to seek put God first and trust in God's provision. As we seek balance in life, the first step is making God our focus and priority.

Balance

The baby has crawled for a while and even knows how to stand. She takes her first steps and plops to the ground. She lost her balance. The running back is heading to the goal line when he is blindsided by a linebacker charging at full speed. He hits the turf hard. He lost his balance. The bartender calls a cab. The middle-aged man stumbles between the door of the bar and the door of the car. He lost his balance.

People lose their balance all the time. Inexperience like the baby. Outside forces like the running back. Poor choices like the guy at the bar. 

Balance is something some of us struggle with all of the time and all of us struggle with some of the time. 

• We don’t have enough money at the end of the month to pay our bills. We keep going a little further into debt. 
• We don’t have enough time during the week to spend time with the people we want to see or to do the things we want to do. 
• Stress from various areas of life prevents us from enjoying life and sleeping. It is taking a toll on our physical health. 
• We carry heavy burdens from the past that fill our present lives with regret and guilt. 
• We are constantly connected to technology and disconnected from life. 
• We are unable to say “no” to less important things and people so that we can say “yes” to more important things and people. 
• We go through the motions of the day on life’s terms and put our priorities and dreams on hold. 

We live lives full of anxiety, clutter, and demands. God’s plan is that our lives are full of purpose, focus, and grace. A disconnect occurs between who we are and who we are created to be. 

Last week, as we launched The Water’s Edge into a new season of ministry, we looked at the stones of possibility, forgiveness, and resurrection. During the next three weeks we are going to look at attaining balance in life. Balance that will allow our possibilities to be realities. Balance that will allow us to learn from the shortcomings of our past while simultaneously putting the past behind us. And balance that will resurrect us from who we are to who God wants us to be. 

I pray at the end of these three weeks, we are all traveling toward lives of connectedness to God and others and that we deepen our experience of purpose, focus, and grace. 

The best is yet to come… 

Craig

Community, Balance, and Significance

Some of us have occupations with busy seasons. Accountants have the spring. As the snow melts and the days get longer, the tax returns pile up. Teachers know the drill. August is a busy time getting everything organized. Retail workers have the holidays. Nurses have the flu season. Kids, activities, school, work, household management—most of us experience the busy season at least once in a while. 

Tuesday started at 5:45 a.m. It ended fourteen hours later at 7:45 p.m. I didn’t work the entire fourteen hours, but it was a long day. I arrived home and did my best to leave budgets, sermons, to-do lists, staff evaluations, and email at the office. The boys didn’t need a pastor. They needed a dad. 

An hour or so later I found myself in bed with the boys. Benjamin was on one side and David was on the other. The light beside the bed dimly lit the room as I read a book and then told a story. The boys feel asleep and I stayed a few minutes. I thought about busyness and balance and purpose and passion. I came up with three things we long for in this messy, hectic, overfunctioning, stressful world.

Community – God didn’t create us to be alone. Then God said, “It is not good for man to be alone. I will make a companion who will help him.” –Genesis 2:18 Being alone has nothing to do with being in the presence of others. A person can be in the physical presence of others and be completely isolated. Anxiety and activity can make us feel lonely. Make time for companions who add value to your life. 

Balance – Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 gives God’s vision for balance in life: For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. A time to plant and a time to harvest. A time to tear down and a time to build up. A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones. A time to tear and a time to mend. A time to be quiet and a time to speak. Balance is God’s idea. Many of us are out of balance and this lifestyle is taking a toll on us relationally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Say “no” to some things, both good and not-so-good, so you can say “yes” to balance. 

Significance – Success is the message of the world. Significance is the message of the Gospel. Success is attaining and achieving. Significance is empowering others to attain and achieve. Success doesn’t last a lifetime. Significance can last many lifetimes. We are wired to help others and without significance, we are missing out on an integral part of life. The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others. -Matthew 20:28 

In our lives I pray, and I invite you to join me in praying, for community, balance, and significance. 

The best is yet to come… 

Craig