A number of years ago, my wife and I met a gifted young woman named Laura at one of the weeklong spiritual retreats we lead for pastors and their spouses.
Laura’s husband was a busy pastor. She was a busy lawyer who really wasn’t very interested in silence, solitude, introspection or asking the deeper questions in life. Her life was active, as she moved quickly and continually from one task to the next, and she wasn’t looking forward to hanging out with ministry people for an entire week. In fact, she resisted all our retreat activities for the first several days.
Then God began to work in her life. On the last day, she brought to the group a verse that had spoken powerfully to her:
“God said, ‘This is the resting place, let the weary rest. This is the place free of worry and full of peace of mind. But they would not listen! So then the word to them became: Do and do, do and do, rule on rule, rule on rule; a little here, a little there—until they go fall backward, are injured, snared or taken captive'” (
In the busyness of her life, which consisted of constantly going and continually moving, she had achieved success, but had lost her connection to life. It can happen to any of us, even those of us in ministry…or maybe I should say, especially those of us in ministry.
Her experience reminded me of the question T.S. Elliot asked in one of his poems: “Where is the Life we have lost in living?” The question was posed in one of Eliot’s choruses from The Rock:
The endless cycle of idea and action,
Endless invention, endless experiment,
Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness;
Knowledge of speech, but not of silence;
Knowledge of words, and ignorance of The Word.
All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance,
All our ignorance brings us nearer to death,
But nearness to death no nearer to God.
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
It is so easy to let the pace of living and the pace of ministry rob us of life. We do and do, a little here, a little there-day after day, week after week. Before we know it, life has passed us by.
Eliot wasn’t the only one to express concern for life. Jesus tells us in
How many in ministry fulfill the words of Isaiah: “fall backward, are injured, snared or taken captive”? It may be depression, doubt, despair, pornography, moral failure, drinking, little joy or resentment—and the list continues. Could our endless cycle of idea and action, our knowledge of motion and not of stillness be a significant part of the problem?
Don’t misunderstand, I believe we in ministry are called to work hard, serve passionately and give much; but in order to live as Jesus lived, must there not also be seasons of rest, stillness, listening and introspection?
After Jesus sent out the disciples to minister in His name, we read these words: “Then because so many people were coming and going they (the disciples) did not even have time to eat (this sounds like our pace of living). So Jesus said to His disciples, ‘Come away with Me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest'” (
Is the constant motion of our living robbing us of the life Jesus offers? Perhaps it is time for us to come away with Jesus to a quiet place and get some rest—real rest, the rest that can restore life.
