If you’re feeling exhausted or guilty about resting today, remember that the type of productivity which pleases God isn’t the hustle-til-you-drop kind, it’s the type that admits, “He is God, I am not.” Learn to view rest not as a necessary evil, but as a blessed gift from a loving Father.

When my wife and I first got married, I was working three jobs.

During the day, I did campus ministry, in the evening I built websites for freelance clients, and at night I cleaned office buildings.

It was exhausting and rest was hard to come by.

In those days of hustling just to scrape by, I viewed rest as a necessary evil.

“If I just didn’t have to sleep,” I thought, “then I could work a few extra hours each day and be able to catch up on the bills!”

It eventually caught up with me.

I distinctly remember flopping down in a chair in the lobby of an empty bank I was cleaning one night. I just put my face in my hands and cried. I wasn’t sad, I was just so tired, and there was no hope of it letting up anytime soon.

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