Lessons on Leadership from the Little Things in Life: Get Some Rest
Life is full of examples that teach us lessons. When we see or hear or experience something from which we can learn, it is that example and experience that often helps us remember the lesson. That’s why stories and illustrations make learning so much more effective. When a story can be used to illusutrate or demonstrate a valuable lesson, the story makes it much more understandable, relatable, and memorable. And so I am sharing examples of circumstances and stories that I have experienced in my everyday life which illustrate leadership lessons that we can learn and apply. This is one of those stories, and it is a reminder that you need to take some time to rest.
This reminder is one that God seems to have been giving me repeatedly lately. Earlier this year I read a book by Mark Buchanan called “The Rest of God,” which dove deep into what it means to rest in the way that God designed us to rest. Then, more recently, my pastor preached sermons on rest for two Sunday’s in a row. First he preached about how, in the past, God created us to rest; in the present, Jesus is our rest; and in the future, we have the hope of true rest. Then in the second message, he preached more specifically about how we rest in Jesus. In between these two sermons, I had an opportunity to get away with my wife and stay at a campsite right on a river. No one else was there while we were staying there, and it was a time of peace and quiet. So, while being reminded of the need for and value of rest, God provided a time of rest to me, and it came at a time when I really needed it.
This also reminds me of the story about Elijah in 1 Kings 19. Elijah had just experienced great victory in 1 Kings 18 by defeating the prophets of Baal and by bringing a 3-year drought to an end (both of which were done by God‘s power and with His direction). But then he was threatened by the king’s wife, and he ran away. Eventually he stopped, exhausted, and asked God to end his life, and then fell asleep. After a little time, an angel brought him food, he ate, and then he laid down to sleep some more, until the angel came back and woke him up and gave him more food to eat. Finally, refreshed and revived, he was able to keep going. As I once heard someone say about this story, sometimes you just need to eat a snack and take a nap.
One of the things this story illustrates, though, is the importance of rest and refreshment. Early in my leadership experience, my tendency was to see my value in my work to the point that I was putting my work before everything else, including my health and my family. With a smack on my head from God and wife’s help, I realized this and began to put boundaries on my work to protect and value my family, and to rest. However, it can still be my tendency, so every once in a while I need the reminder to reclaim those boundaries and have regular time for rest and refreshment. That’s what these recent reminders have been about, and why this recent time away with my wife was so necessary. It makes me think of an old saying, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. ” To this I would also add that all work and no rest leads to emotional dysfunction and physical breakdown.
That’s the lesson on leadership from this little thing in life, from my recent reminders about rest. It is easy to work ourselves to exhaustion, but in the process to lose sight of the most important things and dimish our capability of functioning at our best. When that happens, it hurts you, it’s hurts the people around you that you love, and it hurts your work. Our bodies and our minds need rest, so it is important to not neglect that. So please, take some time to get some rest!
