As many of you know, I’m the pastor of Fellowship Church in Holden, Massachusetts.  I love what I do and personally I wouldn’t want to do anything else.  One of the things I’ve been pondering in recent days is this wierd balance between striving to be an excellent organization and truly building a community of people who love each other.  I know there’s room for both.

Truthfully, the one I have strived the most for is the latter, because this works best with my gifts, but because of the influence of my predecessor I’ve written about here, I’ve also worked more recently on striving for excellence.  The team at FC has done an amazing job in this area over the last few months, really giving their all to do things right.

Now all of a sudden I get this feeling that there are several people who are linked to “the FC” who are going through some real stuff (not that theres not a better word), and I have this desire to help these people through these things through our community.  I just don’t know how.  Even tonight, this thought keeps me awake later than I should be awake.

So this is the dilemma I’m working through as a young pastor:  FC has to continue to reach new people and lead them into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ, and we have to make sure we are taking care of those people who are already immersed in our community.

A constant balance – An all-nighter?

And then it was just Carie and I. 

After church on Sunday, we went with a crew of people to Moe’s to eat and hang out.  Typically we have something to do afterwards like hang out with more people or play monopoly with friends or socialize in some way, but I was tired and we made no plans.

Monday rolls around and I have this big debate in my mind over what to do.  I had just watched the video for “Everything is Spiritual” by Rob Bell where he emphasizes the importance of resting on the day off, so I decided to take him up on the offer.

So I just rest.  Calm my mind and heart down.

It takes a while, you know?  With all the things we think about, all the things I could have been doing. Taxes, bills,cleaning, laundry (which I did do a bit of), planning, watching the tube, making calls, getting my much deserved haircut, going to Wal-Mart or Target to grab some items I need. 

Basically I could have run, did, shopped, made, achieved, read, watched, filmed, cleaned, prepared, moved…

But I knew I needed to rest.  To stop.  To breathe.  To be restored.

So, as it says hundreds of times in Scripture to do, I rested.

Later on in the evening, I had no choice but to play.  We had our 6th game last night in the new basketball league I’m in.  And I played.  I have to think a bit of playing after a good rest is just what is needed after a good mind resting.  The perfect transition to one’s mind being activated again.  It certainly helped, if nothing else, my ego to flourish, as I scored my first 20 point game of the season, and I did it against 6’6″ Massachusetts State Rep Lew Evangelidis.  But back to rest.

I don’t have the time or the capacity or the allowance in what I am as a follower of Christ to get too wound up, critical, tense, and  busy.  There’s too much at stake.  But there’s something about taking a time each week to allow my body, mind, and heart to relax that seems to bring balance to the things that I focus on.

So now it’s back to work for me.  But my hope is that more of us realize this important principle of rest, and how resting (and sometimes playing)prepares you and I for what lies ahead.