Healthy Rhythms

Building Rest Into Your Life

Gospel Community Church,
About two years ago, right around the time that our daughter Eva Mae was born, my wife and I realized (again) that the pace of our lives was unsustainable. We were doing too much; we were exhausted, and it was negatively affecting our relationship with each other and our perception of the people around us. There were a lot of amazing things happening in and around our lives, but, regardless, we were stressed and irritable, which in turn made us irritating. And, perhaps worst of all, we were finding little joy in all the activity.

Such a chaotic pace is clearly not the way God designed life to function, so we began a journey of self-discovery and intentional pursuit of emotional, physical, and spiritual health.
During that season there were a number of resources that helped me to understand God’s best for us and eventually led us toward our summer sabbatical.

There were four books that were instrumental for helping me to identify unhealthy patterns in my life and to reset some of my personal rhythms:
• Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Pete Scazzero
• Sacred Rhythms by Ruth Haley Barton
• Recapturing the Wonder by Mike Cosper
• Sabbath by Dan Allender

These books—along with conversations with trusted counselors—led to mentorship relationships, helped us to appropriately scale back, led us to implement a weekly sabbath, and created margin in our lives to work toward a healthy sabbatical.

Life is still very busy, and at times we fall back into old patterns with the people around us, but we’re excited about the next several months because we will be able to capitalize on all of the healthy rhythms that God has already been teaching us, and we know there is much more to learn.

I will miss Gospel Community Church dearly and will be praying for you daily. One of my prayers is for you to grow in your love for God and in our self-awareness, and for you to establish the same healthy rhythms of work, worship, and rest.

Don’t wait until you are burned out to make adjustments in your life. Like me, you will experience massive implications in your relationship with God and others. Maybe even this summer, pick up one of the books above and ask God to help you grow. Your life and family will benefit, and our church will be healthier as we collectively pursue the Lord and whole-life health together.

-Pastor Andrew

P.S. One additional book recommendation: The Rest of God by Mark Buchanan.